Page 3 of Pledge Of A Bobcat

Was someone inside the car?

I pulled in behind her car and parked, but I didn’t cut the engine on my truck. Mainly because I assumed since she had a jack and a tire iron that she also had a spare, which meant this wouldn’t take long.

As I climbed out of my truck, our eyes met, and I noticed how striking she was. Besides her beauty, the woman’s gaze held strength, along with a hint of vulnerability, which made me want to help her even more.

My bobcat stirred.

He sensed her nervousness, but also how relieved she was to see us. For whatever reason, he liked knowing that our presence alleviated some of her unease.

“Hey there. Looks like you could use some help,” I called out.

“Yeah, I’ve got a flat, and to be honest, I’m not sure what I’m doing,” she said.

“Mommy, you’re not supposed to talk to strangers,” a little girl said from in the backseat.

The woman pursed her lips, then shot the little girl a look that seemed to say,You’re right, but these are extreme circumstances.

My gaze dipped to the jack and then back to her. “Mind if I take a look?”

“Please,” she said, taking a step back.

I crouched down to get a better look. My gaze skimmed along the tire, searching for a puncture hole or anything protruding. When I found the culprit, I glanced up at her. She’d beenwatching, sizing me up. I couldn’t blame her. I was a stranger. We were in the middle of nowhere, at night when a storm was rolling in, and she had a child with her.

“It was an old nail,” I said, pointing to it protruding from her tire.

“Wonderful.” She sighed.

“Do you have a spare in your trunk?”

“Yeah.” She moved to the back of the car, and I followed. “Can you get to it, or should I pull the groceries out?”

“Let’s set them aside just to be safe. I wouldn’t want to break any eggs you might have bought or smush any bread.”

A tiny quirk of a grin twisted the corner of her lips, and my bobcat took notice of it more than I did. “Actually, I bought both.”

“Did you get milk, though? Because you can’t make it through any type of natural disaster without all three,” I joked without thinking, and then hoped she had a sense of humor and didn’t think I was razzing her too hard.

When she chuckled, I knew I was good.

After helping her set the groceries aside, I lifted the spare out of the trunk. It was a tiny donut, but it would get her where she was going.

“How much longer?” the little girl called from the backseat. “I’m hungry.”

“Do you want some apple chips?” the woman asked, digging through the grocery bags until she found them.

“Yes!” the little girl shouted.

I grinned at her excitement.

“Sorry about that. Three-year-olds have no patience,” the woman muttered.

I grinned, meeting her stare. “I’d be surprised if she did.”

My bobcat made himself known again, but I ignored him and shifted my attention to the jack. I repositioned it so that it had amore stable base and then lifted the back of the car so I could get to the tire.

Once I’d managed that, I made use of the tire iron she’d already set out. A gust of wind whipped around us while I worked on removing the flat, and more fat raindrops fell. Once I had it off, I quickly secured her donut.

“Hopefully this storm isn’t as bad as everyone is thinking,” the woman said.

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