gaze dropped to her protruding belly, then slid to the luggage stacked beside her. He turned away the next moment, but then he seemed to make a decision.
“I can give you a ride, if you like.”
“There you go!” Shug crowed, throwing a hand at Bethany even as she addressed the cowboy. “I knew you was a gentleman.”
The cowboy winked at her, and she laughed. The woman must live to flirt. “What do you think, hon?” she asked Bethany. “This your lucky day or what?”
“Oh. Uh…” Bethany stalled, waiting for the alarms to go off in her brain. Everyone knew that accepting rides from strangers was a dangerous proposition. Even if she was hopelessly stranded. She shook her head. “Th-that’s very kind, but I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“No imposition,” he said, “and I don’t blame you for being wary. I just thought…” He shrugged, propped his elbows on the counter and turned his head to look at her. “You seem to be traveling alone.”
Bethany lifted her chin. “I am.”
“The Dallas bus station is right downtown,” he went on, nodding. “I wouldn’t want anyone I know stepping down there alone at midnight with no idea how to get where she needs to go next.”
Bethany gulped. “I see.”
A bell dinged. Shug whirled away and back again, sliding a plate onto the counter in front of Bethany.
“Want I should write down his tag number and take a picture of him with my cell phone?” she asked. “Just in case he ain’t the gentleman he sizes up to be.” She grinned at the cowboy, adding, “Just ’cause you’re good-looking don’t mean a girl hadn’t ought to protect herself. In fact, it probably means she should!”
He chuckled. “Hey, I’m harmless, just trying to do a good turn.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. “You can take a photo of my driver’s license if that makes everyone feel better.”
“That’d come in handy in case I feel the need to call the law,” Shug said bluntly, pulling her phone out of her apron pocket.
He slapped his license onto the counter, and Shug took a photo of it.
“How about your phone number, too? In case I feel the need to call you.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Maybe I need a ride to Buffalo Creek.”
He laughed, and that bell dinged again. A white sack appeared in the kitchen window, and the cowboy got to his feet, reaching for his license as Shug carried the sack to the cash register.
“Better make up your mind,” he said to Bethany, “because I can’t leave those horses sitting out there in the heat any longer.” He looked down at her then, saying, “I’m harmless, I promise, but it’s up to you.”
Suddenly, she remembered what she’d been doing when she’d first caught sight of his rig. She’d been praying for a safe way to get to her brother, with a minimum of delay and hassle. Maybe, she thought, God had actually listened this time.
“I ought to call first and let someone know I’m coming.”
“Go ahead.”
Making her decision, she got to her feet. “Ma’am, Shug, could I use your phone?”
“Why, sure, hon.” The waitress handed it over, reaching for Bethany’s untouched plate with the other hand. “I’ll just wrap this up for you.”
The cowboy put out his hand. “Name’s Chandler.”
“Bethany,” she said, placing her hand in his. “Bethany Ca—” She stumbled over the surname. “Willows. Bethany Willows.” She still couldn’t help thinking of herself as Bethany Carter. That, however, was behind her now, and all that really mattered was getting to Garrett and finding a way to make a life for herself and her child.
Stepping away, she called for the first time the cell-phone number that Garrett had sent in his letter. She had not dared call before, with all that had been going on in her life and his, and she dared not bring it up now, for both their sakes.
After only a few seconds, he answered. Relieved to hear the sound of her beloved brother’s voice, she mentioned tentatively that she was coming to see him. He sounded elated and assured her that it would be no problem. She almost told him about the cowboy, but in the end, she decided against it.
Why worry him when he could do nothing about it, having only a motorcycle as transportation and a workday to get through? She wouldn’t impose on him too much or jeopardize the life he’d managed to put together for himself. Besides, she felt no threat from this Mr. Chandler. Maybe it was because he was so handsome, but if he’d meant her ill, why would he have let Shug take a photo of his license? Garrett, however, wasn’t likely to see it that way. Prison, she had heard, made a man suspicious.
Getting off the phone as quickly as she could, she passed it back to its owner, smiled her thanks and squared her shoulders before facing the stranger who had offered her a ride. “I’m ready.”
“Let’s get on the road. Next stop Buffalo Creek.”
“Uh, no,” she muttered, patting her belly, “I think we’ll be stopping before then.”
He just laughed and pointed her out the door.
Biting off a huge chunk of burger, Chandler chewed a few times and swallowed without ever taking his eyes off the road. He’d already made short work of the fries, preferring to eat them while they were hot.
“I guess Shug was right,” his passenger commented. “You were a hungry man.”
“Not really.”
He glanced in Bethany’s direction and again felt the jolt of her beauty. God had blessed this Bethany Willows with sleek brown-black hair, pale pink skin as smooth as porcelain and a startlingly piquant face. Broad at the brow and cheek but with an adorably pointed chin, it put him in mind of a drawing of a fairy princess in a children’s book. Her delicate nose and brows offset huge, tilted eyes of cornflower blue, rimmed with dark lashes, and wide, plump lips of a rich, dusky rose.
She shifted in her seat, crossing her legs beneath the full skirt of her flower-print sundress. The straps of the elasticized bodice tied at the shoulders, emphasizing the delicate line of her collarbone. She seemed petite but was, in fact, taller than average. He judged her to stand at least seven inches over five feet, which still left her a good eight inches shorter than his own six-foot-three-inch height. The pregnancy bump merely called attention to her long, slender limbs and lithe dancer’s body.
“So you stopped to eat but you weren’t hungry?” Those big blue eyes looked a question at him, her fairy face tilting to one side.
He tried hard to marshal his thoughts. Aiming his gaze straight ahead, he formulated an explanation. “When you rodeo for a living, you learn to eat on the move and whenever it’s convenient. I saw a good place to park the trailer, it was getting on to the dinner hour, so I pulled over.”
A big part of what he did for a living was just getting him, his horses and his gear from one place to the next. It was a logistical nightmare sometimes, and took careful
