Page 48 of Trucker
Trucker looked at his watch before swearing under his breath.
He was reluctant—I could tell by the way his wide shoulders rose and fell as he nodded and turned from the room. For a moment, I watched him until he disappeared up the stairs. Only then, did my spine weakened and I hunched forward.
We got through breakfast and though I wanted a kiss, I settled for a smile and waved as he pulled from the yard.
Forcing myself, I managed to finish the first draft of my latest project and sent it off to the company for approval. That would take at least two weeks since they had to run it by their PR department and executives.
Working with businesses of that size was slow as molasses because everyone wanted to cover their asses by going through company mandated policies.
All that bullshit red tape tended to slow things down tremendously.
While they figured that out, I checked the fridge and cupboards, made a list of everything we were out and headed into town to stock up.
My first stop was the hardware store to pick up a couple lightbulbs. The one on the front porch was on the fritz and usually that meant it was burning out.
But I couldn’t see how—it was barely a month old.
Then again, I remembered what my grandfather would say each time something broke.
They don’t make these things like they used to.
Most of his sayings were beginning to make sense to me as I grew older.
I chuckled, shook my head and picked up an extra box being careful to read the label before setting it carefully into my shopping cart.
By the time I made my way to the grocery store, I was feeling somewhat better.
My knee wasn’t hurting like before and the swelling had gone back down. Though my back was a little sore, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
I was even humming to myself as I moved up and down the aisles. In the female products aisle, I almost ran over Esther. She caught me in the shoulder with a palm shoving me backward.
I knocked off a few packs of feminine wipes.
“Pick those up.” She ordered.
I glared at her, ignoring the pain in my elbow.
“I don’t work here.” I lifted my chin. “Thank you.”
Wanting to just get on with my day, I wheeled my cart around her to stop in front of the brand of pads I usually bought. I wasn’t completely out, but I was dangerously low on my supply.
Plus, they were on sale.
“You deaf?” She demanded.
I picked up a pack and read the instructions on the back. It said the same thing it always had, but I supposed that was a habit.
I tossed it into the cart and was reaching for another when a pack with more in it caught my attention. Removing the first one from my cart, I took down two of the bigger ones and dropped them into my cart.
Esther pushed me again and I whirled around to knee her in the gut.
Esther’s eyes widened as she slipped to her knees, clutching her stomach. I wasn’t a fighter—not by any stretch of the word. But I was frustrated with the way my life had gone, irritated with people in this backward town and hornier than I’d ever been.
My hold on my temper had frayed to breaking and I was just done.
To make matters worse, I was sick of Esther and her shit.
I didn’t run.
