Roadside Rescue Read online

  I was worried about how Shoni would react to any of the sounds that normally came from a mechanic shop as I walked him forward, but he was relaxed and calm with his head lowered to the height of my shoulder. What helped was that there was none of the noise that I was expecting to come out of the shop. My truck sat in a parking lot, seemingly waiting for me. My trailer was already up in the air inside of Brigid’s garage.

  She came out to greet me and wiped her hands on a rag before tucking it back into her waistband. Her jumpsuit slipped a little, and I had to pull my gaze away from her hips when I realized she wasn’t wearing any underwear. Or, if she was, it was really tiny and rode low on her hips. I preferred to think of her naked under that horrible, baggy gray fabric. Though, now that I was thinking about that, I couldn’t really focus on anything else.

  “So, I looked, and I need to order you a new wheel from Denver. They won’t have it here until Friday, so that’s two days away. We don’t have a hotel here in Dove Creek, but I’ve got a spare bedroom if you’d like to bunk with me for a little while. I can’t bake for shit, but I can make a great bison burger, and I’ve got a fridge full of some nice dark craft beer. If you’d rather stay somewhere else, there’s a hotel about forty miles west of here. It’s not that nice, but it’s something. If you have somewhere for your horse to be that you’re comfortable with, then maybe you should call them, and then if you want the hotel, I could drive you there and bring you back here when your trailer is fixed.”

  My head was spinning, not from the idea of spending two days in a tiny little mountain town, but because a woman I didn’t know and who didn’t know a single thing about me other than my name was inviting me into her home. I hadn’t lived in a big city in Missouri, but I had lived in Miami well before I’d had Shoni, and I couldn’t imagine ever opening my home to someone as much of a stranger as I was as easily as Brigid had just done for me.

  Part of me was suspicious of her and her motives, but I quickly tamped down those thoughts because I didn’t want to be like that. The town was too beautiful, and she was being far too sweet to me for me to think so darkly of her.

  I wasn’t completely hooked on the idea of staying with her either though. Part of me was convinced she might be crazy since she was inviting a stranger into her home to spend the night. “You don’t know that I’m not a mass murderer or a cannibal or something.” I was hesitating, and I saw her frown at my unwillingness just to jump on her offer and grab it for the lifeline that it was.

  Brigid laughed and shook her head. She didn’t sound like she was laughing at me though. It sounded to me like she just naturally laughed all of the time. I liked people who were like that since they made it easy for me to be around them then. It was easier to relax around them when I found someone who liked to be happy all the time instead of someone miserable and bitchy like Monica was. “Yeah, but I doubt that you’d tell me if you were. Plus, I’m handy with a gun, and I’ve got one under my bed. So what’s your choice?”

  It wasn’t much of a choice at all actually. I couldn’t exactly sleep in my truck, and I wouldn’t go anywhere without Shoni. I had nowhere to put him, and I didn’t know anyone in Colorado at all. And it wasn’t like I was going to turn down staying in her house with her or having a good meal and a bottle of beer with her either. But there was one pretty substantial problem with her plan. “I don’t have anywhere to put Shoni then.”

  She frowned for a moment and then walked around to the side of the building. I followed her and found her leaning against the chain-link fence. “Is it too short for him?”

  I nodded. “I like him to be in a fence that’s at least five feet tall.”

  Brigid looked back over at Shoni as if she was assessing him. He was short, heavy, and his legs certainly weren’t made for jumping like a thoroughbred’s could be. But if he got spooked, or if he really wanted out, I knew that he could easily clear her little four-foot fence without even trying.

  “What if I used some steel wire and tied it to two trees, and then we put his rope on a ring and he could walk between the two trees like that?”

  I liked the way she thought, and it would probably work. Temporarily at least. I looked over the back part of her land and found two tall, thick trees with branches that were covered in leaves. They’d give him some good shade while he was out there. “Those two,” I said, pointing at the trees I had chosen.

  “I like it. Give me a few minutes to get the line set up, and then I’ll make you the best burgers you’ve ever had. Promise.” She smiled at me and then took off into the yard. I followed in after her and let Shoni graze for a little while as I watched her work. She was fast and efficient, but it was because she was willing to put in the effort so I’d be comfortable leaving my horse out here overnight that really got to me. Most people, hell even Monica, hadn’t understood how much he meant to me, but Brigid seemed to get it without even knowing me. That mattered to me in a big way.

  It didn’t take her long to get it to be functional, and I walked Shoni over there to check out her line.

  “What do you think?” she asked me. She sounded excited and proud of her work as I reached up and pulled hard on the taut steel line. I couldn’t get it to budge at all.

  “It looks really good.” I smiled over at her. “Great job.”

  There was a heavy ring on the line, and I tied Shoni’s lead rope to it. I used a quick release knot, just in case I needed to pull him free in a hurry, but I was confident about leaving him here overnight in what was essentially Brigid’s backyard. He lowered his head to the ground, and though the lead rope pulled tight as he stretched his neck out, he could easily graze. He was secure enough that he couldn’t trip on the rope and hurt himself while he was out there. There was just one thing missing before I could go in and have some of the lunch Brigid had promised me. “Do you have a bucket for water? Something that hasn’t been used as an oil pan?”

  Brigid gave me a quick nod and then ran back to the shop. She came back a few minutes later with a jug of water in one hand and a pan in the other. “I got a new supply shipment in last week,” she explained as she bent down to fill the bucket with water from the jug. I moved it to the side, just a foot or so from where she’d put it, so that Shoni couldn’t step in it and spill his water.

  “Thank you for helping to make him comfortable,” I told her as we stepped back to watch him graze.

  “Of course. I’m sorry I didn’t have the part in that you needed. I thought I had a wheel that would work, but it’s a little banged up too, and I didn’t want to replace your wheel with one that wasn’t perfect from the start.”

  I appreciated that a lot. “Thanks.”

  “So…” She played with the waist of her jumpsuit a bit. “Lunch then?”

  “Sure.” I shrugged. She was offering to feed me, so whenever she wanted to eat was fine by me. “You’re not busy right now?” It was a tiny town, but I expected her to have at least some business. How could she keep the shop otherwise?

  But Brigid just shook her head. “Not right now. Dove Creek doesn’t get a lot of traffic, so I don’t have a steady stream of work. Most of what I do is restoring old cars for some guy in Castle Rock. I don’t have any at the shop right now to show off to you though, but I wish I did.”

  I didn’t know much, or really anything, about classic cars. But the way she talked about them, which was probably the same way I talked about Shoni, made me want to see her work. Her voice got lighter and full of pride when she talked about bringing old cars back to life, and I was definitely interested in what she did.

  “Maybe I’ll get to see one sometime,” I said, to fill the gentle silence between us as we turned and started heading back to the shop. I knew Shoni was going to be just fine. I didn’t need to hover over him any more than I already had. But he was like a baby to me, so I kept looking back at him. A big, stubborn, fifteen hundred pound, often a pain in my ass baby. But I still loved him anyway.

  Brigid took me to a side door in the s
hop and then up a set of steel stairs, and I found myself standing in her living room. There was no door separating the shop from her home, which I found odd, but in such a small town, maybe the shop’s doors were enough. I wondered what it must be like to live in a place where I could feel so secure and safe. “He’ll be fine,” she promised me. Her voice was soft when talking about him, as if she knew how much I needed reassurance in a time when my life was in so much upheaval.

  But I was okay with where he was for the moment. “Oh, I know,” I told her. I wasn’t all that worried about him, for the moment at least. Especially not when every window in her living room faced her yard, and I could watch him as he lazily grazed. I went to sit down on the couch.

  “Can I get you anything right now?” she asked me.

  I shook my head, but I couldn’t stop looking at her. I wanted to know if she liked me too. I wondered if she’d welcome my advances, if I chose to make them, or if I’d end up sleeping in my truck for a few nights. Or worse, being tossed out completely and told to fend for myself and for Shoni. It was a chance I wanted to take, but I needed to be careful for his sake too.

  “I’m going to go get a quick shower. If you need anything, help yourself. Make yourself at home. After all, for the next two days, it will be for sure. Connie likes making cookies, and there might be some left in the fridge. She keeps them in there, and I get an earful if I take them out. I’m not sure why, but I’ve learned not to argue with my little sister about things that don’t really matter all that much.”

  I smiled at her. “Sure.”

  Brigid hesitated before going back though. Instead of going to take her shower, as she’d told me she would, she came over to the couch where I was sitting and knelt down next to me. It dipped under her weight, and I moved over a little to give her some more room, but there wasn’t too much more I could even give her since my back was right up against the arm of the couch already. She followed my movement, crowding me until she leaned forward to put her hand on the couch between my thighs.

  I turned my face toward her and smiled. I could feel my cheeks become heated as I waited for her to make the first move and come closer to me. She seemed uncertain though, so I closed the distance between us. I kissed her softly and heard her sigh against my mouth. I smiled and continued to kiss her. I didn’t grab her, I didn’t toss her back on the couch and cover her lean body with kisses and flicks of my tongue like I really wanted to do. Instead, I kept kissing her as gently and carefully as I could so that I didn’t scare her away from wanting to be with me. I could be really intense without meaning to be. It had been something my ex had commented on often enough that I had started to get a complex.

  When she got up, I let her go, even though I really wasn’t happy about the lost connection between us. I touched her hand before she could get too far from me, and she smiled down at me while touching her lips. “Thanks for the kiss,” she told me.

  “Anytime,” I replied with a smile. I let her hand go so she could go get that shower she’d mentioned wanting. I didn’t think she needed it, but maybe we both needed a little space as things were beginning to heat up between us. She tasted like some kind of hot sauce and beans, like maybe she’d had a burrito earlier and hadn’t brushed her teeth afterward. I didn’t mind the taste at all, and I loved the way her skin smelled like car oil. She may have thought she was dirty and needed to get cleaned up, but there I was wishing she’d stayed so I could kiss her and spend more time smelling her skin.

  She headed down a narrow hallway with a bit of a sway in her step from her slim hips, and I heard a door open and then close. Once the water started, I began to get a bit antsy. I got up and started walking around the living room and paid attention to Brigid’s things, trying to distract myself from the thought of her under the spray of a shower, soaping herself up. I pictured her cupping her small breasts. I thought about her wet fingers sliding between her legs. I chewed on my lower lip as I felt myself getting wet in response to the images I was conjuring up in my head.

  I needed to stop. Or I needed to do something about this attraction I had to her. When I heard her shower being turned off, I started down the hallway. She hadn’t locked her door so I let myself into her bedroom and barely paid attention to a neatly kept room with cream-colored sheets and a picture of some classic car by her window. Maybe the guy standing beside the two little girls in the black-and-white photo was their dad. Maybe I’d get that story at some point. But right then I wasn’t in the mood to sit and listen to a story. I only wanted to kiss her as I saw her coming out of the bathroom.

  Brigid’s towel fell away as I grabbed her tightly in my arms and gently kissed her. I was being irrational since I didn’t even know if she liked women. That was just a hope I had. But as her shock seemed to wear off, Brigid easily came into my arms, and I felt her going soft against me as she leaned into my touch. I moved us to the bed, and she lay down naked across those sheets. “I was wondering if you were picking up on any of my signals,” she softly said as she began cupping her small breasts and teasing me.

  I laughed as I stripped off my own clothes before joining her on the bed. “I was hoping that you were into women, but I wasn’t totally sure.”

  “And yet you came in here when you knew I’d be naked. You’ve got guts. I like that.”

  I laid my body over hers and kissed her. Now that I knew she wanted me too, I wasn’t nearly as gentle as I had been. But I wasn’t exactly rough either. I wasn’t going to bite her, and I didn’t want to hurt her, but I didn’t want to be careful with her either. She didn’t seem like someone who liked caution, not with the way she had her fingers curl around my shoulders and her nails bite into my skin.

  She opened her mouth for me, and I slid my tongue between her lips. Kissing was good. I did like kissing. But what I really wanted was to play with her breasts. They were at least two sizes smaller than mine, which I really liked, and she was all muscle. I wasn’t nearly as fit as she was, but she wasn’t complaining about my body at all, and I liked my curves. If she’d said anything to make me feel like I wasn’t attractive, I wouldn’t have been in her bed. Probably not in her house either. But she’d never said anything like that, and now, just about an hour after meeting her, I had my thumb rolling over her hard nipple as she gasped into my mouth.

  I loved playing with her nipple and feeling every bit of smooth, heated skin against my hands, but what I actually needed was between her legs. I wasted no time trailing my fingers down the middle of her body and bringing my free hand to her hard clit. She spread her thighs for me, inviting me to play. Brigid moved her hands to my breasts, squeezing them roughly as she played in her excitement and eagerness, while I pressed my thumb against her clit and slid one finger into her slick pussy. I quickly followed with another finger and curved them in her slick channel, working away at her pleasure.

  She gasped into my mouth and urged me on, begging me with each soft noise and hard tug on my breasts. I loved how easy she was to please—how every little twist of my fingers had her bucking against my hand and trembling under me.

  It didn’t take long before I felt her tense around my fingers, her pussy completely clenching around me and trapping my fingers inside her. I didn’t mind. I kissed her as she rode out her orgasm against my fingers.

  When she was done and panting as she lay there on the bed, looking relaxed and radiant like a well-fucked angel, I sat back on my heels and licked my fingers clean while playing with myself. She watched me from barely open eyes. A soft, contented smile stretched over her face as I rubbed my clit harder and continued licking at my fingers. She tasted wild and free, and I grinned at her, completely unashamed as I came with her taste on my tongue and my fingers deep in my pussy, fucking myself while watching her.

  We lay together after that, both of us curled around each other as we rode out the last of our pleasure. We lazily petted each other then, just enjoying ourselves.

  “Thank you,” Brigid said as she turned to give me a kiss.


  I smiled at her. “Anytime.”

  “Food?” she asked me.

  I laughed. “Definitely time for food.” I was nearly starving, and I barely remembered the fast-food breakfast sandwich I’d had hours before, except that it had had very little flavor, and the sausage had been burned beyond belief. The heartburn I’d gotten from it though was definitely an unwelcome reminder. It had followed me for hours until I’d crossed into the mountains, and then it had finally dissipated enough for me to relax for a while and just enjoy the ride. That hadn’t been too long before my tire had blown out in Dove Creek.

  We got up soon after that, and she let me borrow a pair of sweats and a T-shirt from an antique mahogany dresser under the window. They fit me—well enough anyway; they were just a little snug around the hips, but I didn’t mind. I followed her down the short hallway and then into her kitchen. She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts that didn’t cover the bottom curve of her ass. I especially liked it when she bent over to push her shoes out of the way and gave me a nice long look at her tanned skin. I could have put my clothes back on, but I liked wearing her things. I sat down in the living room, only about ten feet from her while she was in the kitchen, and I watched Shoni as he stood lazily between the trees, soaking up a bit of sun across his speckled back.

  “So… What is it that you do?” she asked me as she began moving around the kitchen and gathering the things for the burgers she’d be making us soon. I saw nice big tomatoes and three types of cheese come out of her fridge, and I was getting hungry and a bit excited for lunch. I hadn’t had burgers for a long time since Monica wasn’t into red meat or anything that wasn’t considered completely healthy either.