Page 6 of Her Cadillac Cowboy
CHAPTER TWO
Sara’s phone bleeped repeatedly. She pulled over to the shoulder of the road and reached for the phone. The message had been sent three hours ago. She sighed. In all the hubbub and worry over the past three days, she’d forgotten to install an update to her messaging app. Donny’s text urged Sara to come straight home.
“Leaving hospital now with Dad and full-time nurse. He’s already acting up, and the nurse is upset. Need you to smooth things over so she doesn’t quit.”
As if boosting McKinley out of the warehouse and resolving the dealership’s other issues weren’t enough. But sending a reply three hours late was pointless. Sara put the phone back in her purse and floored the gas pedal. Dust and grit rooster tailed behind her. She and Donny would have their hands full at the dealership. A full-time nurse was a necessity.
Had it not been for Josh McKinley and that Cadillac, she’d have been prepared for this news. She probably would have remembered to update her app. But no, just the sight of the man had her tied up in knots.
Sara shook her head.Don’t waste mental energy on McKinley, He doesn’t deserve a second thought. She’d focus on getting Dad settled and having Donny bring her up to date on the dealership. She needed to ask Donny about a whole host of things, including some surface damage she’d noticed on the cars in the lot. She’d seen trash inside several cars as well as scratched doors. Things in the prep and body shop had gotten slack. She worried that the trouble had spread to other departments.
No doubt the slack resulted from neglect. Not that the sloppy workmanship was his fault directly. He just didn’t have any real interest in the dealership. He never cared about Carson’s Cars the way she did. Yet he was the favored child, the heir apparent to something he didn’t want.
Twenty minutes later, Sara walked into the ranch house and dropped her things on the hall table. She hadn’t been back in years, yet the house felt as cold and empty now as it had when she’d left for college.
Loud voices echoed from the back of the house.Donny did say Dad was already acting out.
“Goldarn it, son. If you leave, I’ll disown you...”
“Now, now, Mr. Carson...” an unknown female voice started.
That high-pitched whine must belong to the nurse. A tinny squeak like that wouldn’t stop Dad’s stormy temper. She headed toward her father’s bedroom.
Donny’s voice interrupted the nurse. His words were measured but too low to hear in the hall. Her father’s words she heard all too well.
“I don’t give a hoot what your sister’s capable of. You’re my son, and it’s your place to run the business I built for you.”
Sara closed her eyes just outside the room and hugged herself. Even though she knew how her father felt, his blunt lack of affection and respect still hurt.
Donny’s tone sharpened. “I’m sorry, Dad. I’ve tried to tell you that I don’t want the dealership. I want to travel, and I can’t with that millstone of mechanical wonders around my neck.”
“How dare you?” Carl blasted. “I built that business from the ground up.” The creak of bed springs chorused the outburst.
“Mr. Carson, please,” the nurse pleaded.
“Git away from me, you ol’ biddy.”
The verbal combat had to stop.Sara turned the corner into the doorway. The nurse stood behind, Carl pulling him ineffectually by the arm toward the bed.
Her father strained in the other direction. His hands stretched out toward Donny. “Carson’s was the biggest money-maker in the state. With a push from you, Donny, we’d be the best in the country.”
“I can’t do it, Dad.” Her brother stood at the opposite side of the room. His large, square-jawed face, so like her own smaller features, twisted with some strong emotion. Anger, pain, sadness? All were possible.
Her father’s face purpled. He dropped one arm and heaved the nurse off. She landed in a heap against the wall near the bedside table.
Dad jabbed a finger at Donny. “This is all your mama’s fault. She was weak, and she bred weak. You will stay here and do as you’re told, or you are no son of mine.” Dad howled like a gulf hurricane.
He hasn’t changed even after a heart attack.Dad never failed to blame Mom for any disruption in his life. And he still wouldn’t speak her name.
Donny looked away. When he saw her, he sagged against the wall. “Sara, thank God you’re home.”
In the silence that followed, Sara shoved her own hurt aside and marched into the room. She stopped squarely in front of her father and placed her hand atop his extended arm. Gently, she pushed the arm downward and said with a calm, quiet voice, “Hello, Dad.”
Carl turned his head toward her, anger ablaze in his eyes. “So, you finally decided to come back.”
“Why don’t you get back in bed?” she cooed. Despite the hurt and anger jangling along her nerves, she refused to respond in kind. “All this jumping around can’t be good for you.”
Carl blinked rapidly, as if wondering where she’d come from. “No, no, it ain’t.” His temper fled. Suddenly he was a weary, old man; not the tireless go-getter she’d always known.
