Page 53 of Her Cadillac Cowboy
Oh no! He drove the Caddy.
Sara hesitated. Memories washed over her. Her mother picking her up from school. The smell of leather from the upholstery mixed with her father’s aftershave. Sitting in the back seat with Donny while her mother and father talked on the way home from church every Sunday.
The Saturday night that she’d come into the garage, looking for her mother and found her curled up and sobbing in the back of the Caddy. Sara couldn’t remember the excuse she’d been given, but she knew now that it was because Dad loved his business more than his wife or his family.
“C’mon, Sara, you can’t refuse a ride just because I’m driving the Caddy.”
She stood on the sidewalk, trying to think her way out of an impossible situation.
“You’re closing me out because of a damned car. Just like Carl shut out his wife and family.”
“No, that’s not true.” But it was, in a way. She knew the only thing holding her back from Josh wasn’t the Caddy. It was her father. A sick, twisted man, who may deserve her pity but not her loyalty.
“I’m tired of this, Sara. If you and your father need that car so much, I’ll give it to you.”
She heard his voice, but his words didn’t register. She continued staring blindly into space.
Josh walked over, took her by the shoulders and steered her to the Caddy’s plush interior.
An involuntary “No” escaped her lips, and the door shut, closing her in.
He came around the front end of the car, got in, and started the big V-8 engine. Thousands of horses thundered to life under the hood. Then the Caddy peeled out of the parking lot and aimed toward the Carson ranch.
Sara was grateful for Josh’s restraint. She wasn’t unaware of his impatience. If anything, she was all too aware of him. Memories of their previous encounter in another vehicle battled with her childhood recollections of this one. The Caddy seemed to represent rejection — by her mother, her father, and by Josh. The damned Caddy had dominated her entire life.
No wonder she’d been reluctant to set foot in the classic, let alone ride in it for any length of time. Josh believed she wanted the car for the same obsessive reasons as her father. Josh was wrong. If she ever got her hands on this car, she’d destroy it.
“Tell me what I’ve done, Sara.”
The quiet question jostled her from her morose thoughts.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’ve given me the silent treatment for the past ten minutes. I must have done something.” He maneuvered around a pick-up precariously loaded with large appliances.
“No, you’ve done nothing.” She couldn’t tell him that the only fault he’d committed was to inherit the Caddy from his uncle. She searched frantically for a less personal topic. “Who’s watching Will?”
“He’s fifteen, for crying out loud. He doesn’t need a babysitter.”
“I agree.”
“Then why...?”
“He needs a keeper, not a sitter.”
Josh’s hands tightened on the wheel. “You know I’m not surprised that Will’s in trouble all the time at Carson’s. You’re unreasonably biased. The managers probably pick up on how you feel and treat Will the same way you do.”
“I have never been anything but civil to Will.”
“That’s part of the problem. Will is a kid. He needs warmth, understanding, and encouragement on a consistent basis. Civility is lost on him.”
“That’s the truth.”
Josh was silent.
“You know what else is true?” she continued. “You’re as eager to think badly of me as you claim I am of Will.”
“You can’t tar me with that brush.” He turned the Caddy into the ranch house drive.
