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He eased onto the shoulder too, keeping his gaze on the woman now striding toward him. She wore a pair of hiking boots on her feet, no makeup, and a look of absolute relief on her face. He couldn’t look away from her, but something flashed in his peripheral vision.
He managed to look through the windshield at the same time his seat rumbled and bright red lights flashed on the glass. The warning that he was about to collide with something got him to jam his foot on the brake and come to a complete stop.
His breath caught in his chest, trapped there by his hammering heart. “Get it together,” he told himself. He’d always been distracted by a pretty face and long, dark hair. “Not this time.” He was not interested in this woman, despite her height and the swell of her hips and chest in those tight clothes.
She appeared at his window, startling him again. The emergency flashers she had going on her SUV still pulsed in his vision as he looked at her. He unbuckled his seatbelt with one hand and rolled down his window with the press of a button. “You okay, ma’am?”
“Thank you for stopping,” she said. “I’ve been out here all night, and you’re the first person I’ve seen.” Tears gathered in those eyes, and Travis’s heart melted. Oh, he was a sucker for a damsel in distress, that was for dang sure.
He opened the door, and she backed up. “My phone is dead, and I could’ve walked back to town, but I didn’t want to leave my dog. She’s sick.”
A sick animal too? Travis’s heartstrings were getting pulled left and right, right and left. That alone made him stop and survey the situation. A pretty woman out in the middle of nowhere. A car with the emergency flashers on. Had those been on when he’d rounded the corner?
He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t take a single step toward her SUV, though his front bumper nearly kissed her back one. She walked to the back door and opened it, and Travis half-expected a flock of crows to come flying out. Or a grim reaper to emerge. Something.
Scanning the woman again, he told himself he easily weighed twice as much as her. He could overpower her.Unless she knocks you out, he thought as she reached inside the vehicle.
Travis opened his door again and stood behind it, giving himself a shield of some sort just in case a rabid pit bull was this woman’s choice for incapacitating a man who’d stopped to help her.
Instead of a dog bearing sharp teeth, a kennel emerged in the woman’s hand. She faced Travis, concern in her eyes. She frowned when she saw him behind the door, and he had the distinct thought that he watched too many true crime documentaries. Hey, he had to have something to occupy him in the evenings, because Will annoyed him with talk about politics, and the women he went out with never lasted longer than a couple of months.
“Her name is Sweetie. Do you know anything about dogs?”
“Yes,” he said. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Shayla Nelson,” she said easily, taking a tentative step toward her. “You?”
“Travis Cooper.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder without looking away from her. “Got a farm about five miles back.” And he’d just blown it by telling her that. Wasn’t he going to keep his occupation a secret until after the wedding? He couldn’t even focus for longer than ten minutes.
“Why are you hiding behind the door?” she asked.
“I thought you might be a highway kidnapper,” he admitted, smiling at her. “But you probably just need a ride to town.”
She blinked those long eyelashes at him, and Travis moved out from behind the door. “What’s wrong with Sweetie?”
“I don’t know. She might just be hungry. My stupid car died about six last night.” She glared at the red vehicle, and she’d probably have liked him to rear-end it. Shayla looked back at him. “Could you give us a ride to town? My assistant is probably going nuts about now.”
“Okay,” he said, moving to take the kennel from her. “Do you have everything you need from the car?”
“No, just a second.” She passed him the kennel, and he peered inside it to find a little poodle-like dog laying inside, the most miserable look on her face.
“All right, Sweetie,” he said, smiling at the dog. “Let’s put you in the back seat.” He did, and then he moved to open the passenger door for Shayla, who hadn’t wasted any time getting her purse and a box of something. “What’s in the box?”
“Our samples for next week’s show,” she said. “Elaine is going to be livid.”
He took the box from her and put it in the back seat beside the kennel. “Is she the assistant?”
“Yes.” Shayla got in the truck and Travis closed the door behind her.
“You will not ask her out,” he told himself as he went around the back of the truck. “You need a break from women. Plus, that dog is only ten pounds. Not for you.”
He got behind the wheel of the truck, his self-speech firmly in his head. “All right,” he drawled. “Let’s get you back to Sweet Water Falls.” He pulled out and made a U-turn before looking at her. “What show are you doing?”
“Oh, we just set up a booth at the Founders Festival,” she said. “I own Sweetspot. Have you heard of it?”
Travis dang near choked on his own tongue. “Sweetspot?” he repeated. “The outdoor outfitter?” They made everything a person could need for hiking, camping, backpacking, river trips, all of it. Her hiking boots and leggings made so much more sense now.
“Yes,” she said, clearly pleased. “Are you an outdoorsman, Travis?”
