He got off the bike and dug her keys out of his pocket. But instead of handing the keys to her he began taking her truck key from the ring. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking this. As soon as it’s daylight—in about three hours—I’ll crawl up under it and make sure you didn’t tear anything up while you were plowing up turf. If everything checks out, I’ll have your truck here by seven or eight. You won’t be doing calls before then I hope.”
She didn’t like him taking control like this. But since she could tell there was no sense arguing, she didn’t. She was too tired. She took the rest of the keys from him. “Eight will be fine. Thank you,” she managed, though her jaw ached from clenching it.
He smiled and she could practically hear him thinking “checkmate.”
Maybe not, though, she thought a few minutes later as she closed the door to her apartment and listened to the motorcycle purr its way back toward the pavement. The man was used to sweeping into emergency situations and taking charge. That was what he did for a living—helped in rescues, then remodeled and rebuilt after hurricanes and other disasters. So maybe there wasn’t anything personal about how he was treating her.
Maybe. But as she took a quick shower and then fell into her bed—basically passing out from exhaustion—she knew she wasn’t buying that notion by a long shot. Cole had pretty much made it clear that he thought she was an irresponsible fool for letting herself get so tired. He’d been doing his civic duty by keeping “the fool woman” off the streets—that was pretty personal. Of course, nearly running him down was, too.
“I’m just sayin’ it’s a fine thang you came along when ya did last night,” Applegate Thornton said, his voice booming in the early morning quiet.
Cole had just crawled out from under the truck when the older man and his buddy, Stanley Orr, pulled up in their trucks, one behind the other. They’d wasted no time trotting down the incline to see what was going on with the lame truck. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to see the two old friends out and about so early, since they always met at Sam’s diner for coffee at sunup then played checkers all morning. Today they’d be late; Susan’s mishap was of more interest to them than today’s checkers game.
The seventysomething older men had been great friends of his grandfather and Cole always enjoyed seeing them on his quick trips through town. Now, he wiped his hands on his work rag and nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m glad I was out here when I was or else Susan would still have been sitting here when you fellas drove up this morning.
“What I’m wondering is what in the world everyone is thinking when they call that woman out on the road at all hours of the night? There are other vets to call, you know.” He planned to let everyone know he was unhappy about that situation and there was no better place to start than with these two. Talk about a grapevine. It didn’t get any quicker than them when it came to spreading information.
Instead of answering him they looked at each other and raised their bushy brows. “Am I missing something here?” Cole asked. “You can bet I’m having a talk with my brother when I get back to the house.” Oh, yeah, Seth was about to get a royal chewing out for letting Susan leave the ranch when clearly she was ready to drop. He’d told Cole once that she needed help, so why didn’t she have it?
Stanley, affable, slightly plump and balding looked perplexed. “You ain’t been around Susan much, have ya?”
Applegate, taller and thin as a fence post, wore his signature frown as he grunted. “Obviously.”
Both men wore hearing aids and still their words cracked like thunder, even App’s grunt stirred up the cattle milling in the pastures behind the barbed wire.
“So what does that mean?” Cole asked.
Applegate grunted again. “It means that Susan does what she wants. That gal is all-fired determined to be accepted on a man’s terms. If any of us was ta tell her she ought’n ta be out that late—or worse, if we had livestock that needed tending and we didn’t call her—” He whistled long and slow, while wagging his head.
“That’s right,” Stanley continued. “She’d let us have it with both barrels.”
“After what I saw last night, I can believe that.”
“Yup, I’m shor you did. That little gal kin be real hard-nosed when it comes to her job,” Applegate said. “She don’t take kindly ta bein’ treated like a lady. And she’s real good at what she does.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Stanley said.
She’d made it clear last night that she hadn’t liked him taking charge. “Maybe so,” he said, at last. “But I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right. And it sure doesn’t feel safe.”
App tugged on his hat brim as the sun shifted a bit higher over the horizon. “It’ll be a little easier when she gets her office relocated here in town.”
That got Cole’s attention. “What do you mean?”
Stanley and Applegate grinned at each other then gave him the we-know-something-you-don’t-know look. Cole knew they were also speculating at his interest in Susan. But he couldn’t help that. He leaned against the truck and crossed his arms waiting for them to elaborate. He was going to have to get on the road in a few minutes but he wanted the lowdown on this.
“So…” Applegate took his time, rubbed his narrow jaw. “She didn’t tell you she’s bought a place on the west side of town about four miles out.”
“It was two in the morning when I came across her. We weren’t engaging in conversation beyond me telling her I was taking her home—” No sense elaborating on the tone of that conversation.
“Guess that went over like a basket of mad cats.” Stanley chuckled. “You don’t ‘tell’ our Susan anythang where her business is concerned. That’s what we been tryin’ ta tell ya.”
He shouldn’t have let it slip that he’d “told” her he was taking her home. No one needed to know he’d had to hijack her keys to get her to cooperate. Hardheaded woman.
“So where is this place?” he asked.
“It’s a small property—little house and a large metal building.” Applegate was more than happy to fill him in. “It used to be that oil supply company. You remember the place? Back b’fore the oil boom busted in the eighties. B’fore ever’body moved off.”
Cole nodded. “I remember.” It was the beginning of the town’s slow death.
“She’s got some contractor comin’ outta Ranger in a couple of days ta start turnin’ it into her new office.”
“You don’t say.” She was moving to Mule Hollow and hadn’t mentioned it. “Is she going to live here?” he asked to clarify his assumption.
“Yup,” Stanley said. “In the house on the property. I even thank she done put some stuff in thar.”
When he’d made that comment about where she lived now, she’d had the opportunity to tell him and hadn’t. She kept her business close to the cuff. Or she knew he’d soon find out and this was her way of telling him to mind his own business. He smiled at that. She had spunk. He pushed away from the truck.
“Well, thanks for the info, fellas. Now I better get this to her so she’ll have wheels when she needs them. Wouldn’t want to make her mad.” That got him some slaps on the back and hoots of agreement.
Earlier, after taking her home, he’d driven the hour and a half back to the ranch and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about their encounter.
He didn’t