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5
Talkingto Strangers
The driver tiltedhis head and chuckled. “Well, I guess you don’t. I’m Shawn, and my friend here in the front seat is Nick. We’re nice guys. But the fellow in the backseat is an asshole. You gotta be careful of him.”
He gestured with his thumb while a hand rose over the seat and swatted him in the back of the head, knocking off his hat.
“Hey,” Shawn said, laughing. “Told ya he was an asshole.”
They had a good little routine, busting on each other like that. But axe murderers seemed nice at first, too. At least the ones in the movies.
“So what’syourname?” the backseat passenger asked, rolling down his window and draping his arm over the door. Now I could see him, and he was handsome too, with a friendly face that was deeply tanned. “I’m Derek.I’mactually the nice one, by the way.”
He removed his cowboy hat to reveal a shaved head, and nodded in an old-fashioned greeting.
The two guys in the front seat rolled their eyes and grumbled.
“I’m… Leesa,” I answered, taking two steps toward the truck.
Derek from the backseat extended his hand. When I took it, I suspected he was one of those men with restrained strength who, even though he probably could have crushed my hand based on the corded strength in his exposed forearm, knew how to moderate himself.
Well shit. Bottom line was I needed help, and there was no time to be picky.
“Hey, this might sound a little weird,” I said, “but could I use your… phone charger to get a little juice back in my cell?”
“Sure,” Shawn said. “What kind of phone do you have?” he asked.
“iPhone,” I said hopefully.
But Shawn’s face told me I was out of luck. Again.
“Sorry, we’re not into Apple. You can use my phone if you like, you know, to call someone. Or we could give you a lift somewhere. You look like you need… something.”
Any remnants of good common sense I’d once had went running down the drain like my almost-marriage just had. “Um. Yeah. I could use a lift. But you guys are strangers.”
Shawn switched off the truck engine. “I don’t blame you for hesitating. You’re alone on the side of the road, looking like you just came from a… well, I’d guess that’s a wedding dress under your jacket, right? It’s not hard to see you’ve got some sort of shit going on.”
I drifted away from his gaze, terrified the tears might start again, and stared down at my dress as if I could morph it into something else. “You’re right. This is a wedding dress. And I have just come from a wedding.Mywedding, in fact. WhereIwas supposed to get married. But I didn’t. Get married. I left before it… happened.”
The guys nodded silently, clearly unsure how to respond to my rapid confession. It wasn’t every day that people had these sorts of conversations, and most people hoped they could go their whole lives without having them.
Eventually Shawn cleared his throat. “Okay, well, you need some help. And maybe… water? You want some water? You look like you’ve been out here a long time. And the weather is taking a turn,” he said, glancing up at the sky.
Fuck all. He was right. While we’d been talking, dark clouds had begun to block the sun, and the breeze had picked up.
Figured. It just figured. Mother Nature was about to take a huge dump right on my already-pathetic head.
“Well, um, where are you headed?” I asked.
Although I had no idea what difference it made. I had nowhere to go, and no thoughts about where Imightgo.
It just felt like the sort of thing to ask.
“We’re just returning from a rodeo and were heading for a swim back at the ranch. Going to do some stand-up paddle boarding. You ever try it?” Nick asked.
I wanted to ask him if I looked like I’d ever tried stand-up paddle boarding, whatever the hell it was, but I reminded myself not to take out my bad mood on people I didn’t know. Besides, I could tell he just was trying to put my mind at ease, to show me that he wasn’t some freak or psycho.
But psychos had hobbies too, right?
