Page 115 of Nashville Cowboy
“No, I mean turn around again.”
“What?” Through the mirror the driver quirked a brow. “Wait. Am I being punked?”
“No! Look, we’re wastin’ time here. Turn around, back to the airport.”
“No problem, sir. I live to serve!”
This time the turn had a little spice in it as the brakes squealed and tires burned. Jackson wondered if he’d pissed his driver off.
“Look, I swear I’m not some entitled celebrity asking you to follow my every whim.”
“Not at all, sir. Turn around! Turn around again! Nothing crazy about that.”
“Call me Jackson. I’m not a sir. This is about a girl. My girl. I mean, I swear that’s her truck, just ahead of us. Can you catch up to it?”
“Ah, romance! Why didn’t you say something? I’ve been married forty years myself.”
Jackson could almost feel the accelerator press down. “Then you understand. This girl was supposed to be my wife eight years ago.”
“Kind of a slow burn there, yeah?”
“Long story,” Jackson said. “See if you can get her to pull over.”
The driver followed closely enough that Jackson read the license plates of Eve’s truck. In the darkness he couldn’t get a close view of inside the cab, but it was definitely her truck. Where thehellwas she driving like her pants were on fire? He’d have a talk with her about the difference between racing a horse and racing a truck like a speed demon.
While the driver honked and even pulled his hand out the window in the universal sign for “stop” Eve kept right on driving.
“She seems clueless, sir.”
“Shit fire! She isn’t. She’s just ignoring you. Just follow her, wherever she goes.”
“You sure this is the girl, sir?”
“I’m sure.”
“Dale Earnhardt Jr., that one.”
“Not usually.”
Another few miles and one thing became quite clear. Eve was headed to the regional airport and she wasn’t going to pull over. Had he forgotten something important, and she was rushing to catch his plane?
“Guess you will make that flight after all,” the driver said as he smoothly turned into the regional airport minutes later.
“Pull over,” Jackson said and hopped out of the limo. He sprinted and caught up to Eve, just as she nearly fell out of the truck.
“Jackson?” She narrowed her eyes at him, and then at the limo. “That was you behind me?”
“You didn’t think about pullin’ over?” he yelled. “Did that not sound like a good idea to you?”
“Don’t you raise your voice at me! I was in a huge hurry and I thought it must be a crazy person back there thinking I wasn’t goin’ fast enough. So, I went faster. Why were youbehindme? You should have been way ahead of me.”
“We turned around.” His heart kicked up and his chest constricted. “I was comin’ back.”
“You were comin’ back?” Her eyes were wide, her wild brown hair flying all around her. “Did you…forget somethin’?”
He took a step closer, hope spreading over every fiber of him.
“Yeah. I don’t care if we live in Nashville or Stone Ridge, I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life.”
