by Cat Johnson
Crap. How was he going to get a wink of sleep with all that in his head?
The road to hell was surely paved with good intentions. He’d heard that said, but now he fully understood the meaning.
Miss Phoenix Montagno was going to be his roommate for the whole night, after which he’d have to be in the truck with her again for another half a day. Whether he touched her or not, the fantasy of it was already tormenting him
This was a bad idea. The pressure in his jeans told him that already.
Chapter Sixteen
Justin walked down the row of doors, each one painted the same obnoxious turquoise color. The numbers got higher until he finally stood in front of the one that matched the key tag in his hand.
“This is it.” Justin pushed the key into the lock and turned the knob. The door swung in. “Home, sweet home.”
For better or worse.
It wasn’t the nicest place. Then again, it wasn’t the worst one he’d stayed in, either. There had been hotel rooms when he’d had to do a few shots at the bar, then go back to the room, close his eyes, and try to forget how bad the accommodations were just so he could sleep.
He entered the room first and flipped on a light, glancing back at Phoenix, standing in the doorway silhouetted by the setting sun. “What do you think? Is this okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s fine.”
He followed her gaze to the twin beds. There were two, just as he’d requested, but they were separated by barely two feet. Only the width of the night table stood between them.
A room this small didn’t have the square footage for more space between the beds. About now she was probably regretting saying she was all right with sharing.
He knew he sure was, but he wasn’t half as worried about spending a sleepless night with this girl just feet away as he should be. His mind was still back in Oklahoma and on the fact that his mother and aunt had yet to get back to him after that one text.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket again and checked to see if he had a signal. He did. Not the strongest, but enough to get a call or text through. He opened his text messages and sent one to both his mother and his aunt.
Call me!
Hitting Send, he glanced up as he shoved the phone in his pocket. “I’ll go get our bags.”
“I’ll come help.”
“No need. I got ’em.”
She smiled. “Thanks. But you don’t have to take care of me.”
Sure he did. He’d taken her with him and now she was his responsibility, on top of all the others he had. The same ones he was trying to get away from for just a few damn days. And that had turned out to be a shit idea. Now he had to worry about where his mother was and what she was doing.
His anxiety about his mother rose as his mood plummeted further. Scowling, he said, “I’m not taking care of you. I’m just carrying your damn bag.”
She pulled back a bit in reaction to his harsh words and tone. “Okay.”
Shit. He’d known he wasn’t fit for company on this trip. Sometimes he should listen to the little voice in his head when it talked to him. Instead, he’d gone against his instincts.
Meanwhile, in spite of his worry, his little head—the one in his pants—was very interested in Phoenix’s close proximity. And that was a whole other set of problems for Justin to deal with. He wasn’t prepared to resist his attraction to her. He was too weak at the moment.
Too worried. Too stressed out. Too tired. Too . . . everything.
Sinking into a woman and forgetting everything else but the feel of her was too damn tempting. If it was any other time, another situation, another woman, he’d let himself. But Phoenix came with a load of secrets, and he didn’t know if he wanted to get any more tangled up with her than he already was.
He had his own secrets, and after sex, some women wanted to talk. Phoenix was definitely one of those talkers. She liked to ask questions and she didn’t like not knowing the answers.
His hours with her so far had proven that to him.
She’d be even more interested in his life, his feelings, his secrets, if he let himself take things further with her. He might be in the mood to fuck, but he sure as hell wasn’t in the mood to talk. So that settled that.
This was a bad idea all around. The room. The road trip. Getting involved in whatever was between Bonnie and Phoenix. This was Rohn’s problem, not Justin’s. He should dump all this on Rohn’s doorstep and leave.
That idea was the first bright spot in Justin’s dark mood for the past couple of hours.
That’s what he’d do. The moment he arrived in Oklahoma, he’d dump Phoenix and the trailer on Rohn’s doorstep and go.
With that plan firmly in place, Justin headed toward the truck to get the bags and start the ill-advised overnight hotel stay.
They’d have to eat and then eventually go back to the room. It was way too early to go to sleep. He sure as hell wasn’t going to suggest they go to a bar. Alcohol clouding his judgment was the dead last thing he needed tonight.
He’d just walked in through the door, one bag in each hand, his own duffel and some floral thing that looked like a carpetbag from some old movie in his other, when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket.
He dropped the bags, thinking afterward he probably shouldn’t have done that. He didn’t know if Phoenix had something breakable in hers.
It was too late to worry about that as he stepped outside on the walkway, pulling the door almost shut behind him. He wrestled the phone out of his jeans and glanced at the readout.
He saw his aunt’s name. That it was not his mother calling had his hand shaking as he answered. “Hello?”
“Hi, Justin. How are you?”
He let out a laugh. “I’m fine. Where have you been? Is Momma all right? You didn’t answer my calls at the house or on either of your cell phones.”
“Good Lord, don’t sound so upset. We were in the movie theater with our phones on silent. We can’t have a bunch of calls or texts making noise in the middle of the movie.”
He drew in a stuttering breath and let it out slowly. He should be happy they were okay. He shouldn’t be angry they’d made him worry. He tried to remember that and keep his tone steady as he said, “Next time, can you maybe shoot me a text to tell me what you’re doing?”
“Ugh. I hate texting.”
He rolled his eyes. “Then call me. You know I worry.”
“I know you do, but we’re both just fine.”
“How’s she doing?” he asked.
“She’s doing good.”
“She eating?”
“Oh, yeah. We cooked together last night. A big lasagna. Garlic bread. Even a salad, so we didn’t totally blow our diets with a carb fest.”
He was lucky his mother ate at all nowadays, so he’d be fine with her eating as many carbohydrates as she wanted. But he knew his mother’s sister was trying to reassure him. He should be grateful for that.
“Thank you for staying there.”
“It’s not a problem. Long overdue for us to have a girls’ only couple of days.”
“A’ight. I appreciate it anyway.” He drew in a breath and tried to focus his thoughts now that he knew they were both okay. “I stopped for the night, but I’m planning to be home by lunchtime tomorrow.”
“That’s fine. Take your time. We’re good here. I took the day off from work today and I was already off tomorrow.”
His little trip had inconvenienced her. “Thank you for taking off.”
“Eh, the boss owes me. No problem at all.”
Even if it was a problem, she probably wouldn’t have told him. That’s the kind of woman she was. His mother had been happy and joking just like her sister once upon a time. Before life had beaten her down. He wished she could be happy again.
It was good for her to be with her sister. Aunt Phoebe was full of life. Single, though by divorce not widowhood. Working a good job. Living on her own. Having fun. Aunt Phoebe was a good example for
his mother.
“So is she around? I’d like to say good night.”
“She’s actually already gone to bed.”
It was barely suppertime. “Already?”
“She said the movie wore her out.”
“Did she eat supper?”
“I offered to heat up leftovers from last night, but she said the popcorn and pop at the theater filled her up.”
Justin’s mood plummeted as quickly as it had lifted. It was always one step forward, another step back with his mother. One good day, then a bad day. Hell, more like a good couple of hours followed by a run of darkness.
“A’ight. I’ll call you when I hit town tomorrow and am on my way home. Please call if you need anything.”
“We won’t need anything. And you’re too far away to do anything if we did, so just enjoy your trip.”
He knew she’d meant her comment to relieve his worry. All it did was have him clenching his jaw in anger. “It don’t matter how far away I am. If you need anything, I can have three men over there in a matter of minutes.”
If he knew anything it was that Rohn, Tyler, and Colton would be there for him if he needed it. Janie and Bonnie, too, if it was something that only a female could deal with. And hell, if it was worse than they could handle, there was the sheriff’s department. He had friends all over town and he wouldn’t hesitate to call in a favor.
“We’re fine. I love you. Have a good night, Justin.”
He drew in a breath to calm himself. “Love you, too. Good night.”
Still determined that he could and would be able to handle any problems, even if he was miles and hours away, Justin pushed back into the hotel room with enough force to send the door slamming against the wall.
Phoenix let out a little yip as he startled her. She was standing by her bag not far from the door. No doubt she could hear anything and everything he’d said on the phone.
He only hoped she had enough good sense to keep any comments or opinions or, heaven forbid, questions to herself.
“You hungry?” It was a diversion to keep her from questioning him, though he actually was hungry.
“Yeah, sure. I could eat. It’s about dinnertime anyway.”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“We’ll figure that out when we get there.”
“Okay. Sounds good to me.” She was on her best behavior.
“Good. Come on.”
Chapter Seventeen
Phoenix watched Justin’s stiff back ahead of her as he led the way to the truck.
He was wound tight as a drum, and she wasn’t talking about his tight butt cheeks moving beneath the denim of his jeans as he walked. She could definitely see the stress he was under.
The question remained, why was he so stressed? She didn’t know, just as she didn’t know who had been on the other end of that phone call that had seemed to agitate him so much.
She climbed into the high cab of the truck for what must be the fifth or sixth time that day. The perplexing truck with the even more complicated man behind the wheel.
Why did he jump down her throat, and look as if he was panicking, all because she wanted to change the station on the radio? Did he have some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder involving the radio? That wasn’t the only odd thing she’d witnessed today. That phone call was also pretty mysterious.
Phoenix shot Justin a glance, not daring to ask all the questions pinging through her head. He was right. If she wasn’t willing to tell him her secrets, she couldn’t ask him about his.
“What?” he asked as he glanced in her direction. He must have noticed her staring at him.
Phoenix shook her head and tried to look innocent. “Nothing.”
He raised a brow. “Didn’t look like nothing.”
She shrugged. “Not sure what you’re talking about. I’m just waiting to see what this town offers for food. That’s all.”
“A’ight.” Whether he believed her or not, he let the topic drop. After a few minutes had passed, he slowed the truck and finally came to a stop along the curb. “Here’s a place. It’s early, but they look open. Whatcha think?”
He turned in his seat and looked to her for an opinion.
Little did he know that Phoenix was so far out of her element, she couldn’t even form an opinion about the restaurant.
She wasn’t even sure what state they were in. Texas, maybe? She didn’t think they’d crossed into Oklahoma yet. But they’d left New Mexico a while ago.
Traveling across the country. Staying in a cheap hotel room. With a stranger. A male stranger at that. It was all crazy.
The only travel she’d ever done was with her parents, and a couple of school trips. That was nothing at all like this little journey. Those trips were all very safe. Supervised. Well planned and laid out, minute by minute on an agenda.
Never had any trip been in a truck, with a radio she couldn’t change, while pulling a trailer packed with the belongings of a woman who might possibly—no, most probably—was her birth mother.
She didn’t know much of anything and Justin wanted her opinion on the restaurant? Had he asked her opinion on anything at this point, including if the sky was blue, she might hesitate. “We can give it a try. I’m not picky.”
“No?” He looked skeptical.
“No.” She frowned. The fact she was there with him at all was proof of that.
“A’ight. Then let’s go on in and eat.” His words sounded like a challenge.
Phoenix stiffened her back and reached for the door handle. “Fine. Let’s go.”
She stepped down onto the pavement. Way, way down because the truck, fuzzy radio stations and all, was very high.
Justin stalked around the hood of the truck and met her on her side of the vehicle. “Got everything out that you need?”
She had her purse, which had her phone and wallet inside. That was all she’d need for dinner. “Yup.”
He nodded and spent a few moments locking the doors and then even pulling on the handle to check whether it was locked. She would have expected him to double check that the trailer was locked, because that’s where Bonnie’s belongings were, but he didn’t.
More odd behavior.
The truck didn’t look like anything special. Heck, he didn’t even keep it very clean inside. She hadn’t missed the can of chewing tobacco under the dash, even though she’d never seen Justin use any. That was in addition to some other odd things lying around that could easily be thrown out or at least stashed in the center compartment.
They walked into the place, which was oddly similar to the bar in Arizona where she’d first seen Justin.
Just inside the door, Justin moved to the bar, where two guys sat waiting, she guessed, for the two draft beers the female bartender was pouring.
“You serving food?” Justin asked.
“Sure are.” The girl nodded as she slid the glasses in front of the two guys. “You want a table?”
Justin turned to Phoenix. “Table or bar?”
“Whatever you want is fine.”
He hesitated for barely a second. “Table.”
Phoenix didn’t contradict him. “All righty.”
“Can we just take a seat?” he asked the bartender, a bored-looking female who was probably wishing she was out with her friends rather than working.
“Yup. Menus are on the tables. Server’s not in yet, but I’ll come over and take your order.”
“Thanks.” Justin dipped his head in a nod, apparently oblivious to how the girl was checking him out. Phoenix hadn’t missed it, though. Not that she could blame the bartender. Justin was a good-looking guy.
His hand on her lower back steering her toward a corner table caused a strange feeling inside her. Especially after she’d just been thinking about him as a man rather than just the source of a ride.
With him touching her, this felt much less like two people who happened to be eating together and more like a date.
&n
bsp; She was being silly. He just wanted to sit in the back away from the other people so he was steering her in that direction. No big deal. Definitely not a date. That was crazy. He pulled out her chair and she repeated the this-is-not-a-date mantra to herself as she sat.
Her heart fluttered as she glanced up at him. “Thanks.”
“Sure.” He moved around to the other side of the table and pulled out his own chair, apparently unaffected by her adolescent reaction to a man simply acting like a gentleman.
He grabbed the menus from where they were stashed behind the ketchup bottle, the Texas Pete Hot Sauce, and the salt and pepper shakers made out of mini Corona bottles. He handed one to her. She took it and tried to digest what was written there.
Luckily, it wasn’t too hard. There was the typical bar fare, mostly beef, and everything came with French fries.
She decided on a hamburger, figuring she couldn’t go wrong with that. It was cheap and it would fill her up. Because this wasn’t a date, she had every intention of paying for her own meal. Even if he was paying for their room. She decided to say something about that.
“Thank you for covering the room cost.”
“Not a problem. Rohn told me to stop, and he gave me extra money for expenses.” He shrugged.
“Well, I appreciate it anyway. So thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
The bartender came flouncing over. The girl took her time sashaying closer to Justin. “You decide yet?”
She’d asked him directly, but Justin looked at Phoenix. “Ladies first.”
Phoenix felt quite a bit of satisfaction over his deferring to her. “I think I’m gonna have a cheeseburger. Medium.”
He grinned. “Great minds think alike. That’s my usual order. But since I just had that yesterday, I think I’ll go with the homemade pot pie.” He glanced at the bartender. “Is it really homemade?”
