Page 5 of Strike a Chord
“Well, I’m happy to follow the ambulance to the hospital, then drive you home once he has his cast.All I have waiting at home for me are goats and chickens and my neighbor will have already put them to bed for me tonight.”
Emotion made her throat grow tight.“You would do that?We don’t even know you.”
“Sure you do.I’m Dax.You’re Jennifer, and he’s Levi.See, we know more about each other than I know about …” he pointed to a random person giving a statement to a cop, “that guy.I don’t know his nameorwhat he drives.Or where he lives.”
She chuckled.“I would really appreciate that, Dax.Thank you.”
His smile stirred butterflies in her belly.“Of course.”
Even though they arrived there in an ambulance, it was still nearly two hours before Levi was admitted for proper imaging and fitted for a plaster cast.Jennifer felt so bad for Dax.But every time she went out to the waiting room to check on him, he said he was in no rush and to take all the time they needed.
By the time they climbed into his truck, it was nearly midnight and Levi was exhausted.The doctor gave him something for the pain, so he fell asleep in the backseat before they were even back to the crash site.
When they passed it, she was torn whether she wanted to look or close her eyes.
Ultimately, she looked.Her Venza and the Tesla were still on the side of the road, being hooked up by tow trucks.She’d have to deal with that later.
Before they headed to the hospital, she and Dax made sure to grab everything out of the Venza and fortunately, his truck had the canopy on.Though, the back was pretty full of music equipment.
So the guy was also a musician in addition to a goat-and-chicken-owning saint?
And he was single?
What was the catch?
Did he have halitosis?
A weird foot-fetish?
Did he buy women’s farts in a jar off the internet?Because that was a real thing.
There were people weird enough out there that they wanted hot girls to fart in jars, and paid good money for the women to ship those canned flatulence to them.
What were his flaws?His red flags?His deal breakers?
Because all men had them.
At least all the men Jennifer had ever dated and gotten tangled up with.The worst of course being Levi’s father.
She shuddered at the memory of Tom and all the terrible things he’d done to not only her, but so many others, as well.She craned her neck around to take a glimpse at her sleeping, casted son.
Thank god, he was nothing like his father.
Besides the similar hairline and color, nose and jawline, not much of Tom was present in Levi.Her son was sweet and gentle and easy going.Sure, he was a little video game obsessed for her liking, but when she asked him to put it down, he did.He didn’t throw a fit or get upset.And when she said he needed to trade the screen for a book, he met it with a grumble of resistance, but ultimately acquiesced.
The single mom thing was hard.She wasn’t sure she’d be able to do it when Levi was a baby and Tom went to prison.But the alternative would have been so much harder.She couldn’t stay in that relationship, constantly living in fear for not only her life, but her son’s.
Facing the road again, she closed her eyes, letting the sound of heavy traffic on a wet road become a white noise.
“Don’t fall asleep,” came a rumbly voice tinged with amusement.“I don’t know where you live.”
Jennifer blinked open her eyes.“Sorry.”
Dax chuckled.“It’s okay.I just don’t know where you live, so you can’t sleep for long.”
Smiling, she nodded just in time for them to come around a corner and see a blinding sea of red taillights in front of them.
“Shit,” Dax murmured.He brought up his phone to check the map app and Jennifer glanced over only to see a red line for what looked like the next several kilometers on the highway.“Bet you it’s another accident.With this weather, crap visibility and potential for hydroplaning, it’s not surprising.”
