by Cat Johnson
She rolled her eyes again. “I get it. You won’t tell me your secrets until I tell you mine. I know. We’ve been over this before.”
“And yet I still don’t know anything about what’s really going on with you and Bonnie.”
“And neither do I, about what’s going on with you and whoever got you upset on the phone.”
“Then I guess we’ll both keep our secrets to ourselves.”
“I guess we will.” She turned to look out the window.
Justin shook his head. That little discussion had effectively put an end to the small talk. He saw that clearly as the miles passed and she remained silent.
“I was just calling home to check in on my mother and my aunt. Nobody answered the house phone or their cells or my texts and I got worried. That’s it. It was no big deal.” At least, the part he was willing to tell her was no big deal. He kept the rest to himself.
“Oh. Okay. I understand how you’d worry, being so far from home. It’s scary when people don’t answer their cell phones. Where were they? Why didn’t they answer?”
“It turned out they were at the movies and had their phones on silent.”
She shook her head. “See? Something so simple. Nothing to worry about, but just because we count on people being attached to their phones twenty-four/seven, we worry when they don’t answer.”
“Exactly.” He smiled, pleased. She was back to her chatty self. That was good. There were too many miles left to travel for them to sit in stony silence. It was a risk, but he took it anyway and asked, “So I told you something about me. Your turn.”
She shot him a sideways glance. “I don’t remember making that deal.”
“It was an unspoken agreement.”
“Okay. Here’s something about me. I have no clue what I’m going to do when we get to Oklahoma. Not where I’m going to stay for the night. Not what I’m going to say to Bonnie Martin. I’ve got pretty much nothing.”
“You’ve got me,” he reminded her. “But I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.”
She sighed. “I know.”
“I know a hotel right in the middle of town that doesn’t charge too much a night. Does that help you any?” Justin asked.
She smiled. “Yeah. That’ll help. Thanks.”
He’d give anything to have his old apartment back. If circumstances hadn’t made him move back home with his mother, he’d be more than happy to offer Phoenix a spot on his sofa for the night.
Yeah, right. His sofa.
He knew damn well he couldn’t resist her for two nights in a row.
She sighed again. “I guess I’ll have to rent a car to get around while I’m there.”
Rental cars could be expensive if she didn’t find a deal. It wasn’t as if his small town had a rental place in it. She’d have to get the car from the city.
It took him about a second before he felt bad stranding her in town with no ride. “You can use my truck while you’re in Oklahoma. You can’t take it to Arizona, but you know, while you’re in town just to get around, it’s fine.”
She turned in her seat to stare at him. “This truck?”
“No. My other truck.” He could handle driving Jeremy’s truck to work for a couple of days. He was getting used to it after this trip. He’d finally stopped being assaulted by the nearly debilitating memories every time he opened the door.
This trip had been good for something after all.
“Oh. Okay.” She paused and then said, “Am I allowed to change the radio station in that one?”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes.”
“All right. Thank you. I’ll be very careful, I promise. I won’t wreck it.”
Justin snorted out a laugh at that. “I certainly hope not.”
He might be obsessed with preserving Jeremy’s truck, for obvious though most likely unhealthy reasons, but he was almost as careful of his own truck. He was still paying the bank for the loan on it, so it would suck if she did crash it.
“So, since I’m supplying you with a truck to drive during your stay, I think that should buy me one other piece of information. It’s worth that, no? What do you think?”
“Oh, so this is a quid pro quo situation?”
Lucky for her, he happened to know what the little scholarly sprinkling of Latin in her snarky response meant. “Yes, it is. I give you something and you give me something in return. Come on. One fun fact about Phoenix. Or Bonnie. Or why you’re so interested in my boss’s fiancé. Anything you’d like.”
“That’s right. You told me Bonnie was engaged. Tell me more about her fiancé.”
That fact was obviously of interest to her. “Not much to tell. She and Rohn got engaged this summer.”
“Rohn, owner of the ranch where you work. Hence the Double L Ranch trailer filled with her stuff.”
“Yup.” He nodded. “I take it you don’t know Rohn.”
“No.” That was all she said, though he could almost see the thoughts flying through her brain, she was thinking so hard.
He’d just about given up on getting that one more piece of information she owed him in exchange for the truck loan when she drew in a huge breath and turned in her seat to angle toward him.
“Can I trust you not to say anything? If I tell you a secret that has to do with Bonnie, even though she’s engaged to your boss—heck, especially because she’s engaged to your boss—will you promise not to say anything to anyone?”
This conversation had gotten real serious real fast. He wished they were having it anywhere else besides a moving truck where he had to divide his attention between her and the interstate.
Even though it looked as if he was about to get some answers, he wasn’t sure he liked the direction they were going. “You’d be putting me in a sticky situation having to keep secrets from Rohn. Can I ask you why?”
What she was asking him to do wasn’t a small thing.
Rohn had held his job for him when he’d been injured bronc riding and couldn’t work for almost a month. He’d given him all the time he’d needed to deal with his brother’s death and his mother’s current problems.
His loyalty lay with the man who’d stood by him for the past few years, no matter how bad things got in his life.
“This information. It’s not really mine to tell. It’s a secret that Bonnie’s kept for years. By all indications it’s something she wanted to remain a secret. And hell, I’m not even one hundred percent sure she’s the Bonnie Martin I’m looking for. Even if she is, maybe she’s already told her fiancé. I can only hope she has, because if she hasn’t and I just show up . . .” Phoenix let the sentence trail off.
He still didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, but he did begin to see the enormity of whatever it was she was hiding.
This was obviously going to require his attention. He flipped on the signal, slowed the truck, and merged into the right lane. There was no place safe to pull off the highway, but he sure as hell didn’t want to be driving in the fast lane when she sprung whatever it was she was hinting at on him.
Convinced he could drive the speed limit and not swerve off the road whenever she made her big revelation, he said, “All right. I won’t tell.”
“Swear it.”
He raised a brow at her demand, finally saying, “I swear on my father’s grave, I won’t tell your secret.”
“Okay.” After a second, she said, “I was adopted and I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure . . . I think Bonnie is my birth mother.”
Justin absorbed that information.
He didn’t know enough about Bonnie to guess whether Phoenix’s assumption was right or wrong.
Bonnie had appeared in Rohn’s life only a couple of months ago. He didn’t know if she’d been married in the past or if she had kids. He knew nothing about her life in Arizona other than the fact that she’d taught school there.
In fact, he’d only just learned that she and Rohn had dated in high school.
“I�
��m not sure why you’re so worried. Even if it’s true, what makes you think it would be such a huge secret?” he asked.
“Because it was a closed adoption.”
“I’m not sure what that is.”
“That means neither party, not the birth mother or the adoptive parents, and definitely not the child, is ever supposed to know the identity of the other. The official records are sealed. They’re not supposed to be opened. Ever. Bonnie chose a closed adoption twenty-five years ago. That means she didn’t want anybody to know.”
“Or it means she just didn’t want you to know. Not everyone else in her life.”
“Thanks.” There was hurt coloring Phoenix’s tone.
“I meant, maybe she wanted you to concentrate on your future and not on your past.”
“Aw. That’s nice. I never thought of it like that.”
He smiled. “Glad I could help.”
“But as sweet as that idea is, I don’t think that’s the reason. If I’m right, she wasn’t long out of high school and was about to start college when she got pregnant. There was no father listed, so she must have been single and alone. That’s why I’m not sure she told anyone at all.”
“I’m still confused. If the records were closed, how did you find out?”
“That’s the crazy part. I had to apply for a duplicate birth certificate because I couldn’t find my original—the one that listed my adopted parents—and when it came, it was a copy of the real original. The one from the hospital where I was born, instead of the modified one created after the adoption.”
“Wow. Somebody screwed up.”
“Exactly. It was from a hospital in Phoenix and had Bonnie Martin listed as my mother. No father. And I didn’t even have a name yet.”
“Did it have contact information for Bonnie? An address or something?”
“No. I Googled Bonnie Martin in Phoenix, Arizona, and found the address of the house where I met you.”
“Phoenix, Martin is a pretty common name. It’s not like, I don’t know, Montagno.” Justin hated to burst her bubble, but it was true.
“I know. That’s why I don’t know what to do. What to say. She could think I’m a nutcase if she’s not the right Bonnie Martin.”
“You’re traveling halfway across the country and you’re not even sure you’re chasing the right woman?”
She sighed. “I know. It’s crazy.”
“No. It’s kind of nice, you trying to find her.”
“Even though she never wanted to be found.”
“There is that.” He cringed. “But hey, maybe she’s changed her mind over the years. Twenty-five years is a long time. Lots of room for second thoughts.”
“But if it is her, she’s moved on to a new chapter in her life. Maybe she doesn’t want her new fiancé to know she had a baby out of wedlock and gave it up.”
A memory hit Justin of Rohn saying that Bonnie had gone away to Arizona for college and they’d lost touch. If she’d gotten pregnant and carried the baby to term before giving her up, and she was trying to hide what had happened, it made perfect sense she wouldn’t keep in contact with people from home or come back to visit during that time. She and Rohn would have lost touch.
Phoenix might be right. This could very well be something Bonnie wouldn’t want Rohn to know on the eve of their new life together.
“Shit. This is tough.”
“I know.”
“Maybe it’s not her.” That wouldn’t be the best scenario for Phoenix, but it sure would be the easier thing for Bonnie and Rohn and Justin, who was now the keeper of this secret.
“Maybe. But I looked her up on the ASU alumni site. I saw her picture. We look a lot alike.”
Justin glanced at her again. Crap. She was right. They did.
Phoenix’s eyes lit up. “You know her. Do you see a resemblance?”
He drew in a bracing breath. “You do have the same coloring.”
And figure, right down to the cup size, though he’d never admit to Rohn he’d noticed.
“There’s more. She’s a teacher just like me.”
“Yeah. She is.” There was nothing concrete, but the circumstantial evidence seemed to be piling up.
“So what do I do?” Phoenix looked completely at a loss.
“I guess you get Bonnie alone and ask her. Privately, so that if it is a secret and she doesn’t want Rohn to know, he won’t. That’s her choice. Her right.” As much as Justin hated doing it with every fiber of his being, he’d have to lie to Rohn, or at least withhold the truth.
“Okay.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “But tomorrow, not today. I don’t think I can do it today. I’m not ready.”
“A’ight. I’ll drop you off at the hotel before I bring the trailer to Bonnie’s house. I’ll stop by later with the truck. You’ll just have to drop me home afterward.”
Justin discounted having Tyler or Colton follow him over without a second thought. He didn’t want to involve anyone else in the deception. The fewer people involved the better.
“I don’t know how to thank you, Justin.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He’d spent the whole trip trying to get her secret, and now that he knew it, he wished he didn’t.
Chapter Twenty
“So, this is it. My hometown.” Justin slowed the truck to the posted speed limit, which after being on the interstate for hours felt more like crawling. “What do you think?”
“I like it.” In fact, Phoenix was pretty sure she loved it. The whole atmosphere.
It was a quintessential small town, right down to Main Street lined with mom-and-pop shops, just like on TV or in the movies. Nothing like where she’d grown up in California. There wasn’t a Starbucks in sight.
Justin laughed at her response. “That’s because you didn’t grow up here.”
“That’s probably true.” People rarely appreciated what they had in their own backyard. The old saying was correct that the grass was always greener on the other side of the fence.
“So I’ll take you to the hotel first, then drive over to Bonnie and her mother’s house?” His tone said that the decision was hers.
It was tempting to ask him to take her with him to meet Bonnie now. Justin would drive her wherever she wanted. She knew that. What she didn’t know was if she was ready to confront Bonnie or this issue yet.
“That sounds good.”
“Are you sure you’re going to be all right here alone with no vehicle until I get back?” He shot her a look of concern.
“Of course. I’ll be fine.”
“We can stop and grab you something to eat first.”
“Justin, you don’t have to worry about me.”
“If we pick up something, I won’t. There’s a sandwich shop in town. We can get something there. You don’t have to eat it right away if you don’t feel like it.”
He’d thought of everything. Besides, she wasn’t sure she could stomach a fast-food hamburger after having fast food for breakfast and a hamburger for dinner last night.
“A sandwich sounds perfect. Thank you.”
They drove for about a mile before he pulled the truck into the lumberyard lot and shifted into Park. “The sandwich shop is right next door. Are you okay running over yourself? I don’t want to leave the truck here in case I’m in the way, and I can’t park this thing on the street.”
“Don’t be silly. Of course I’ll be okay.”
“I hope there’s no line. The owner of the lumberyard is kind of nosy. I don’t need him asking about the cute young thing riding shotgun with me.”
His calling her a cute young thing had the blood rushing to her cheeks as she opened the door.
“I’ll be as quick as I can.” She climbed out of the high truck.
His comment had her practically bubbling over as she ordered her food from the teenager manning the counter.
She paid for the sandwich and the bottle of water—probably half what she’d pay for the same thing back in California—and retu
rned to the truck.
There was no nosy lumberyard owner in sight as she pulled open the door and climbed back inside. “Got it. Turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and sliced jalapeno cheese.”
Justin lifted a brow. “Wow. That sounds good.”
He’d never shut off the engine, so all Justin had to do was shift into gear and drive in a big circle to get out of the lot.
“Anybody bother you while I was gone?” she asked.
“Nope. And I don’t see Rod’s truck so I guess he’s not here. We got lucky.”
Phoenix nodded. “Good.”
Before she knew it, he was pulling into the entrance of a small hotel. The kind where each of the rooms opened up onto the parking lot. She looked at the slightly dilapidated long low building and felt alone. Justin hadn’t even gone yet and she was feeling lonely.
She turned to him as he reached for the key in the ignition. “You don’t have to park and come in.”
He cut the engine and pulled the key out in spite of what she’d said. “The truck’s fine parked here. I want to make sure you get checked in okay.”
She glanced around the parking lot. She really doubted they were filled up. There were maybe three parked cars. “I’m sure there’s a vacancy.”
“I’m coming in anyway. Then I’ll grab your bag and see you settled in your room before I go.”
There was no fighting a gentleman. Phoenix was beginning to see that. She didn’t mind. It was actually kind of nice.
As they walked toward the office, he said, “It might be a little while before I can get back. I have to drop off the trailer at the Martins’ house, then go home and swap trucks.”
“It’s okay. They have HBO in all the rooms.” She glanced from the sign by the road to Justin. “See, I’ll have plenty to do.”
“I’ll give you my cell phone number before I leave. Just in case.”
“Okay.” That she’d have his number made her ridiculously happy, which was completely silly.
It made sense for her to have his number, just in case. There were any number of legitimate reasons why it would be totally appropriate to text Justin and for him to respond. But all she could think about was that knowing she could text him would make leaving less hard and tonight in the hotel less lonely.
