Page 3 of Home on the Road

“Go away,” a small, miserable voice came from his left.

“Not until we talk,” Harry said, easing the door closed so it would give them privacy, but not lock them out.

Walking around the dumpster, he found the slight man sitting on a plastic box. Had he lost more weight since the last time Harry had been through?

Ziggy looked up at him with tears running down his face. “What do we have to talk about?”

Though he was not sure his brothers would approve of his hiring a new driver without their input, Harry felt in his gut this was the right thing to do. Ziggy needed to get out of here, and after their every other week liaisons, he wanted the man with him in his truck. He wanted to fully explore the attraction he feltfor the cute ginger that had his cock rising every time he was within twenty miles of the truck stop.

“About you coming on the road with me.”

Harry watched as Ziggy blinked before he said, “But if you’re my boss, we can’t have sex. That wouldn’t be right.”

As soon as Ziggy blurted out the statement, he frowned like he could not believe he had just put such a condition on his coming on the road with him.

Though it was not at all what he wanted, Harry nodded. “That sounds reasonable. At least until you decide we’ll be together permanently.”

“Permanently?”

“Yep. As in ‘til death do us part, grow old together and adopt a dozen cats once we retired from the road.”

The expression of astonishment on Ziggy’s face had Harry fighting to keep from laughing out loud.

“But you hardly know me,” Ziggy whispered.

“I know enough that I’m willing to spend the rest of my life getting to know all the parts of you that I don’t know yet. So, what do you say? Come with me when I leave in the morning.”

Chapter Two

Ziggy gaped up at the tall man standing in front of him. He blinked, then rubbed his eyes and blinked again. Harry did not disappear, or become one of the dozens of other truckers who stopped here on a regular basis. He was still the big, built, masculinely beautiful Harry Myles, and he was watching him with more concern than sexual interest in his expression.

But Ziggy was still confused. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why would you want me to work for you?”

Harry blinked and glanced toward the back door that was only open a crack. Would the stepmonster come looking for Ziggy? Or would she just take the money and leave?

“Because someone around here hurt you. Sally Jo told me you have your CDL and I think we’d make a good team. On the road and off.”

Ziggy did not feel up to arguing, so he rolled his lips over his teeth and dropped his gaze to his hands.

Then he remembered why he was stuck at the diner in the first place, and just like that, the dream of being far, far away from the stepmonster, with Harry and back out on the road popped like an overinflated balloon.

“I can’t,” Ziggy said with a sigh as he pressed his hands to his eyes to keep further tears at bay.

“Yes, you can. You’re killing yourself here for a woman who hurts you. You don’t owe your father’s memory anything except to live the best life you can. And you won’t ever convince me that slaving away in that kitchen all day and night is your life’s dream.”

Ziggy sighed again. “You’re right, it’s not. But if I leave, the diner will have to close because my stepmonster, er, stepmother, won’t set foot into the kitchen, and there’s no oneelse around here who can cook.”

“So, you’re going to let your stepmonster work you until you drop dead like she did your father? Or she goes too far one day and beats you to death?”

Ziggy gasped as Harry gave voice to the fear that had been haunting him for the past week, since she began nearly daily beatings. And the man was right. Terry refused to hire a second cook, and demanding he work in the kitchen from before sunup until closing was already taking its toll. After this morning, he was afraid the next one would put him in the hospital.

Or worse.

Taking a deep breath, Ziggy made a decision he hoped would not come back to bite him in the ass later. “The diner closes in about an hour. I’ll need to take a shower and get my stuff from the house.”

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