Page 14 of His Build

Graydon threw his truck into gear and tore off after it.

When his lights lit up the back of her SUV and he recognized the silver shade, he let out a sigh of relief. As he got closer, he flashed his high beams a few times to get her attention. The SUV kept going for a minute, then the brake light flashed on as she came to a stop.

He knew it was her, but she didn’t know it was him.

Once, when his little sister Casey was maybe nineteen, she’d called to ask him for a ride after getting stuck out in the woods at a tailgate party. She’d already started walking, and by the time he spotted her, she was alone on the shoulder. She’d picked up her pace when he came up behind her, so he’d pulled over and shouted out the window. He was shocked when she’d nearly punched him in the face, yelling at him for not calling her phone first like a normal person. Maybe shehadpunched him in the face. Casey was tough now—she ran their grandmother’s old hobby farm and regularly got into tussles with the farm’s resident alpacas. Back then she used to run endurance races with her boyfriend, who’d been training to be a firefighter. Ifshehad been scared by Graydon sneaking up on her, anyone would be.

With a mind not to scare the shit out of Lucy, Graydon left a good amount of space between their two vehicles, then reached into his glove box for his flashlight. He hopped out of the truck, leaving the headlights on, and walked towards her car. When he was a few feet away, he turned his light onto his own face. The light seared into his eyeballs, but he wanted to make sure she knew it was him. He kept it trained on himself until he’d fumbled his way around to her side of the car.

“You can put the flashlight down,” Lucy said, a note of laughter in her voice. “I can see it’s you.”

“Oh. Good,” Graydon said, thumbing the light off. He was momentarily blinded by the blue afterimage of the beam in both his eyes. Then his foot hit a rise of dirt on the shoulder and he tripped.

“Shit!” he said, swinging his arm out. He managed to grab the window frame of her SUV and barely got his feet under him in time.

This time she did laugh, though she tried to hide it. The sound made something warm stretch in his chest, almost making him forget he nearly fell on his ass. He’d do a full-on clown routine just to hear that sound again. Instead he stood up, still unable to see much except the glare of his own headlights to his right.

“I think we’re even,” she said.

“Even?”

“I feel like we’ve both sufficiently embarrassed ourselves.”

“You didn’t nearly fall ass over teakettle into this ditch,” he said.

“No, but I should have followed you out like you offered. I’m not sure if that’s worse than shining a flashlight directly into your eyes for a full minute straight.

“I didn’t want to freak you out! What if I was Brady Smyth or something?”

“Who?”

Shit, he shouldn’t have brought up the accident. This happy, bubbling feeling between them felt as thin as an actual soap bubble and he wanted to hold it in his hands; cradle it like the precious thing it was.

“Just the town doofus.”

“Do I need to worry about him?”

He almost blurted out the truth: that she already ran into him, literally, but that Brady knew she wasn’t one to mess with, given Graydon had snarled at him like a guard.

He shook his head. “No.”

His vision was catching up with him—he could see the outline of her face, though he couldn’t quite make out her expression. Was she still smiling? Was she annoyed? Did she want him to shut up and help her get out of here?

“Well, thanks for coming after me,” she said.

“You betcha.”

You betcha?He clapped his hands on his thighs. “Better quit while you’re ahead, Gray-man.”

“Gray-man?”

Great. Gray-man. It was something his father used to call him.You’re my big man, Gray-man.

Graydon laughed nervously, then turned away, a confusing tightness in his throat. What the hell was the matter with him? Why did being around this woman—a total stranger, in every respect—make him run his mouth so much?

He skirted the question. “We should probably get going, we’re actually on a private drive. If you keep heading down this road, you’ll reach another property at the end—there should be room to turn around down there. I’ll follow you, then let me get ahead and I’ll take you out to the highway. Are you okay from there?”

“Left to get back to the Lakeside Motel.”

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