Page 16 of The Unbuttoned Ranger
He hesitated.“When I get up the road I’ll call a tow service. I’ll tell Skeeter it’s an emergency.”
“Mommy!” Carsen called.
“I’ll be right there, honey.” She tried her best to keep her tone light. CaDee didn’t have the energy for any more disappointments. “Thanks for stopping. You take care now,” she said to the cowboy’s back.Good riddance.
Chapter Eight
Sharp stomped back to his truck and hauled himself into the driver’s seat, fuming because he was late for the meeting with the team.
He swiped up his phone and checked the network as if something might have changed. He laid his hand on the gear shift, his foot on the brake, and paused. He saw the woman bent back under the hood. There was nothing she could do to fix it without the proper parts.
She stepped out from under the hood and he saw her swipe at her cheeks. She’d been crying. He never could stand to see a woman cry.
He’d call Skeeter and the mechanic would make sure the lady and her son would be okay. But what if he was busy?
The kid was looking through the back window of the car.
Something in Sharp pinged.
Maybe he’d come on a little too strong.
In his defense he’d almost run over her. He’d looked down for one second and when he looked back up, he saw her.
He leaned back into the seat. The call with his team was important. And he was wasting time.
The Texas heat wasn’t for everyone. Especially someone from Chicago, which he saw from her license plate. What the hell was she doing clear out in Fin’s Creek? There were only five houses on the stretch of lonely road, and the only strangerswho made it out this far were those who were lost or no-good corporates.
He let his foot off the brake pedal.
The kid had his face pressed against the window. His eyes were on Sharp in a way that dug deep inside.
Damn.
What if this were his wife and child stuck on the side of the road? Would he want them left alone to wait?
He dropped his hand from the gearshift. There would be other meetings.
Laying his hand on the door, he sighed. He couldn’t live with himself if he ditched the mother and son. His father had always taught him to be kind and help others.
Sliding out, his boots hit the gravel, and he strode back to the lady. She spun around, surprise lighting her green eyes. She’d been crying and the evidence was abundantly clear in the moist trails on her cheeks.
She kneaded her brow as if to ease the tension.“Did you forget something?”
“You won’t find any phone service this far out and you can’t fix the car without the parts and tools,” he repeated himself, feeling awkward knowing she’d been crying.
One tear slowly slid to her cheek, then a second, followed by too many to count.
She mumbled something inaudible as she swiped clumsily at the wetness.
“What’s that?”
“Have you ever had one of those days? Weeks? Months?” She threw up her hands in defeat, which he guessed didn’t happen often. It took a lot of guts for a woman to drive across multiple states with a kid and dog, but for what? She wasn’t a corporate like he’d first suspected.
“Yeah,” he said.
The dog was sitting at her feet giving the stink eye like he believed Sharp was the cause for the woman’s stress.
“I keep making mistake after mistake. Why can’t the universe give me a break?”
