Page 54 of Her Cadillac Cowboy
“Really, you haven’t spent the entire drive home telling me how intolerant and prejudiced I am?”
Josh bent his head. “I get your point. We aren’t going to get anywhere by laying blame.”
“Precisely. Will may be a child who needs all of those things you listed, but he’s an undisciplined, disruptive child nonetheless. Even you can’t deny that.”
“He wouldn’t be if he could get a consistent message from the adults in his world.” Josh pulled the Caddy to a stop in front of the house.
Sara opened the door and got out. “You may be right, Josh, but ask yourself, is it right to make me responsible for the kind of messages Will gets? I’ve got enough problems without adding a troubled teenager to them.” She closed the door and walked toward the house. Behind her she heard another car door open and shut.
“Sara, wait.”
She kept moving.
Before she could fit her key in the lock of the house, Josh grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around. “I don’t want to leave things like this.”
She choked back the tears that threatened. “Really? How did you want to ‘leave things’?”
“We need to talk about us, without Will or your father clouding the issues.” He threaded his fingers through her hair. He was about to kiss her. She had to stop him.
“That’s too bad. ‘Cause the way I see it, there is no us.”
The look on his face turned feral. “You claim I’m denying Will’s disruptive behavior. Well try and deny this, Sara Carson.”
The gentle restraint of his lips to hers blasted away any attempt at denial. Her lips moved under his. A fire of need boiled in her blood.
The porch light came on.
“Sara, is that you?” Gene’s voice sounded, and the ranch house door opened behind her.
Josh released her and walked toward the Caddy. “Sweet dreams, Pipsqueak.”
“What’s going on, Sara?” Gene’s question sounded beside her.
She turned to face him. “Nothing, Gene. Nothing’s going on.”
“Don’t give me that. Nothing doesn’t make my best friend’s little girl cry.”
Sara reached up to find her cheeks wet.
“I oughta give that McKinley boy a piece of my mind.”
The Caddy’s engine started with a roar. Mud rooster-tailed behind the car speeding down the drive.
???
He was driving too fast. The headlights barely revealed the two-lane blacktop before he hurtled down the rain-slick road. He needed the speed, the distraction from the aching want that chased him. Avoiding Sara hadn’t worked, and being with her was twice as frustrating. She responded to his touch. Just look what happened when he barely kissed her. But touching wasn't the problem. Stubborn pride and family loyalties — his and hers. That was the problem.
The headlights flickered. They went out. That was impossible. He kept the Caddy in tiptop shape. “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat, what now?” He thumped the steering wheel with his fist then tried every switch he could find that might solve the problem. The headlamps must have burned out or a fuse blew. If it were the alternator, the engine would have died for lack of spark from the plugs. He eased his foot off the accelerator. He knew his way home and could certainly make it without headlights. But anyone else driving this road at night wouldn’t be able to see him.
The Caddy’s speed continued to fall. That was good. He needed to slow down under these conditions. The only thing that kept him from using the brakes was the fear of fishtailing and ending up in one of the ditches that lined the narrow road in this section. He started to press lightly on the brake when he felt an impact on his front bumper. Unprepared, his foot stomped on the brake. The Caddy went into a skid. Josh heard the crunch of metal as his head met the steering wheel.
