Page 21 of Her Cadillac Cowboy
Gingerly, Sara put the phone to her ear. The woman could have had a lucrative career as a hog caller. She probably didn’t need a phone to be heard one and a half miles away.
“Frau Fenderbender...”
“Feinderbienscht!”
“Yes, thank you. How is my father?” She heard the nurse huff for a moment.
“Yur fader is a very sick man. I vill not insult yu to repeat the thing he says to me. Here I come to help a poor sick soul, and he is nasty cruel to kindness. I von’t up put vit it.”
Worn out, Sara enunciated slowly, trying to get a straight answer. “Fraulein, just tell me, is my father still alive?”
“Vell uf course he is still alife. I am very gut nurse.”
“Excellent, glad to hear it. Please put my brother on the phone.”
“I cannot.”
“Vy?” Heavens, the woman was driving her batty. “Why?”
“He is not here.”
“Donny isn’t there?”
“Ya, das is vat I tell you. He is gone avay.”
Sara sagged against the slowly cooling car hood. “Did he say where he was going?”
“No, no! He did not efen say he vas going. I gif Herr Carson his bath, und Herr Carson, he is gone ven I come out.”
Sara put a hand to her aching head. That was the source of the confusion. Nobody who knew both of the Carson men addressed Donny as mister.
“Frau Fenderbender...”
“Feinderbienscht.”
“Yes, thank you. Please listen. My car has broken down. It will take me some time to get a tow truck and a ride home. Vill — Will you stay with my father until I get there?”
“Ya, I cannot go nowheres vitout somebody gif me a drife.”
“Thank you very much. I’ll take care of getting a ride for you too.”
“Gutbye, then.”
The phone clicked before Sara could respond. So much for this nurse working out. She punched another set of numbers into the cell phone. She really didn’t want to wake Steve Chavez at 2:30 a.m. He had a new baby. But with Donny gone, she could think of no other way to get home than to call her new prep shop foreman and request a tow. The phone rang six times before he picked up.
“Steve?”
“Yeah, Miss Carson?”
“I’m sorry to wake you, but my car’s overheated, and Donny can’t pick me up. Could you drive down to the lot for the tow truck and come get me?”
“Sure thing, Miss Carson. Where’re you at?”
“I’m on the ranch road about a mile and a half from the house.”
“I’ll be there in about a half hour.”
“Thanks. And apologize to Velda for me.”
Sara hung up and settled in to wait. If she hadn’t sold her house, she’d run screaming back to Alaska and never go south again. Donny and Dad could solve their own problems. But she had sold the house because she’d honestly believed she would be able to prove herself worthy to her father. Like that would ever happen now.
She’d have to cancel her morning meetings and deal with getting a new nurse. Who knew how long that would take. She wouldn’t blame the home health service if they refused to risk personnel with an abusive patient.
What was Dad thinking? Yes, he’d always been temperamental, but his recent behavior smacked of borderline insanity. Or else he wanted Sara to fail. But why? Was ego and male pride that much more important than saving the business he’d lived for all these years? She shook her head. The reasons for Dad’s actions were more than she could understand or cope with. The key to resolving all the issues confronting her was to save Carson’s Cars and make it better than it had ever been.
With or without Dad’s approval, that’s exactly what I intend to do.
