Page 60 of Lone Star Longing
“Now that does take me by surprise. I didn't think you’d be a nostalgic music guy.”
The first fat raindrops hit the windshield hard enough to make Lacey jump, and she straightened in her seat even more, her left hand tightening on the console until her joints whitened.
“You’re not going to be able to get to your home,” she fretted. “You’re not going to be able to get through that crossing.”
“They fortified it after the bus incident. You know that. You drive it every day. It’s higher, and has the car-catchers now. We’ll be fine. I’ve got this.”
She wished she had his confidence, but she could barely see the road in front of them, without street lights, only the reflection of the reflective paint in the headlights guiding them down the road, along with the occasional flash of lightning.
The sky opened up then, rain pounding on the roof of the truck, and even Beck must have been alarmed, because he lifted his foot from the gas and slowed significantly.
“Kinda hard to see,” he admitted with a sideways smile.
“Maybe we should pull over.”
“Hard to see a place where we can do that safely, without getting stuck.”
He tapped a button to turn on his hazard lights, which assuaged her fears that someone would come up behind them too fast and hit them.
“We’ll just take our time. You can call your dad, if you want, and let him know we’re going to be later than we planned.”
“Yes, good idea. And I can see, too, if the storm is hitting them, too. So we can kind of gauge how big it is.”
She fished out her phone, but she had no service. With a sigh, she tucked her phone back in her purse.
“No service.”
“Probably the location more than the weather.”
She knew he was trying to assure her, but her anxiety ratcheted up.
“Do you like storms if you’re home? Not driving in it?”
She shook her head. “No, because even then, I think about the people who have to be out in it. How hard it is for them to drive in it. How dangerous.”
“Good thing there aren’t that many storms in West Texas.”
“There’ve been more recently. They seem to hit us on the way to Dallas. We got a pretty bad hail storm not too long ago, and we had to get a new roof.”
A bolt of lightning snaked toward the ground, followed instantly by a clap of thunder, and Lacey pressed herself farther back into the seat. “Maybe I should have seen that counselor the school offered after the accident. I mean, I did see her, a couple of times, but I didn't really like her, so Dad didn't make me go back.”
The water was already ponding on the road, and Lacey was very grateful to Beck for taking it easy, guiding the truck carefully. She didn't think most men would take her fears into account.
“Have you thought about names?”
“What?” His question came from left field, though she thought she understood the reasoning behind it—keeping her mind occupied.
“Names? For the baby? I know you don't know if it’s a boy or girl yet, but I thought maybe you’d be playing around with some names anyway.”
“Oh. Well. Sure. I’ve been thinking about it. I have a list a mile long of girl names I like, but not as many boy names. There’s so many that just sound the same as everyone else, though. You know, all the Bible names, or then just your basic names like John and Ben and Jerry.”
He laughed. “Like the ice cream?”
“Do not overestimate my lack of control around ice cream. If Mrs. Lopez carried that brand, I’d already have doubled my weight.”
“So that’s where you’re looking for inspiration for names? The freezer section.”
She scoffed, knowing he was trying to tease her into forgetting about the storm, but not really wanting to laugh. “No, I have an app of baby names, which of course I cannot access now because no service. But I also look at credits on movies and TV shows, and in magazines, and people I know.”
