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“Miller and Sons, this is Dean speaking, how can I help you?” The rich baritone filling the line had me breathing a little easier.
“My toddler and I are broken down and stranded off of Highway Sixty-Five,” I said. “Smoke came through the vents, then from the hood.”
My voice started rising in octaves as I spoke, panic finally filtering in.
“Hey, hey, take a breath. What mile marker are you by?” I stood up and looked around, explaining everything I saw. “Then you’re not far. What’s your name?”
“Summer,” I said quickly. “Can you help?”
“Well, I’ll come out with the tow truck and bring you guys back. I’m assuming you’re staying somewhere here in Holiday Hollow?” He asked. The fact he stayed so calm soothed my panic slightly.
“Yes,” I answered, grabbing Theo’s hand just as he stood to start running around. “No way buddy, it’s too dangerous. We’ll run around when we get home, okay?”
“Everything is going to be okay. Focus on your son and I’ll be there in twenty,” Dean promised, quickly ending the call so I could handle Theo.
The next twenty minutes felt like hours as the time seemed to slow down. Theo was antsy and done with being patient and finished his snacks off quickly.
When I saw the tow truck pull up I nearly sobbed in relief. Theo gasped and ran forward, but I snatched him up and propped him on my hip.
“We’re going to ride in that if you can be good,” I told him. My baby blinked up at me with wide eyes.
“Really?”
“Yup,” I answered. “He’s going to put our car on the back, just like your toy. Then we get to see Grandma and she made you a fresh batch of cookies.”
“I’m not hungry,” he said, his attention was too focused on the tow truck to care about cookies now.
The man who climbed out of the truck and started walking towards us had my mouth going dry.
He was tall. His brown hair was shorter on the side and longer at the top, combed back to perfection. It was probably the only part of him that was clean. His shirt and arms were covered in grease and honestly, it was hot as hell.
He gave me an award winning smile full of straight white teeth, running a hand nervously over his stubble.
“Pleasure to meet you, Summer. Let me take a quick look since you said it was smoking to make sure there’s nothing that we need to worry about right now, and then we can grab his seat out of your car and whatever you need before I load it up?”
The fact he thought about the car seat without prompting was impressive.
“Sounds good,” I told him. “Thanks for driving out here.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t dream of leaving you two stranded on the side of the road, not many people service these parts,” he said as he popped the hood and took a look. “Well, it looks like your radiator might be busted, but there’s nothing exposed I can see from here. I can unhook the car seat, is there anything else you need me to grab?”
I shook my head, hiking Theo’s bag that also doubled as my purse up my shoulder while he stayed wrapped around my other hip. “We should have everything for the drive besides that, thank you.”
Theo still hadn’t uttered a word, his eyes still stuck on the tow truck.
“You alright there, little man?” Dean chuckled, leaning his hand on the frame of the car still.
“It’s big,” was all Theo managed, making us both laugh. If my son wasn’t afraid of him then I took that as a damn good sign.
“How about I grab your seat and put it in that big truck so you can get a better look,” Dean said with a wide grin. “Just let me get that situated and load up the car then I’ll take you for a drive. If your mom says it’s alright, I’ll even let you try out the horn once.”
Theo and I stayed off to the side of the road while Dean unlatched the car seat with efficiency. I watched silently from the side of the road as he moved to the truck to install the car seat before backing up and orchestrating an impressive dance of hooking up the car and pulling it onto the bed of the tow truck.
By the time he was done I had one excited kid who was more than ready to climb into a full size version of his toy.
“Can I honk?” Theo asked.
“Sure, buddy,” I told him. The least I could do after we’d been on the side of the road for close to forty minutes now was to let him have a little fun.
