Page 1 of Tumbleweed Temptation
Chapter One
“Come on, sweetheart, rise and shine. Weather’s bad and we have to get going.”
Austin Driscoll buried his head deeper in the pillow and groaned. Bad enough he didn't have his own car to drive himself to school, but his mother was the bus driver. That meant he had to get moving before sunrise to make the route and head to the high school in Kimmel, the next town forty five minutes away.
The thing about living in West Texas. Few of the towns were big enough to have their own high school, so students were bussed in. He guessed he was glad his mom had a job, but he wished it didn't get him up so early.
Every morning he had to deal with it, and every morning was just as hard as the day before.
He dragged himself to the bathroom, dodging stacks of magazines and boxes more by feel than by sight, wondered if his razor stubble would get him written up today, decided he didn't care. He did his business, grabbed a shirt and jeans out of his narrow closet without even looking to see which they were. His mom shoved a breakfast bar in his face while he was tying his shoes, his eyes barely open, then she hustled him out the door to the bus parked in their driveway.
Even though she’d mentioned the bad weather, the drops of rain on his head had him hunching in surprise. She hugged him briefly before he mounted the steps into the bus.
“Thanks for being a good sport.”
He grunted a response, climbed the steep steps and flung himself into a seat about halfway down the aisle while his mom started the bus, did her safety checks, then backed out of the driveway, the beeps echoing through the quiet neighborhood and making him cringe.
But if the neighbors weren’t used to it by now....
The bus route started in town, made three stops before heading northwest to loop around, picking up the kids who lived on ranches before heading back south toward Kimmel. Austin’s consolation was that the town kids had to get up almost as early as he did, and had similar slit-eyed expressions as they boarded and flung themselves into their seats.
This morning, though, maybe because of the rain, they were louder, and he found himself waking up as his friends talked about the storm knocking out their power, how it had been raining for hours, how they’d kinda been hoping for a rain delay.
Typically, Austin didn't start waking up until they got to the Conover place, almost at the apex of the loop, but today Con McKay and Claudia were riding the bus. Con and his sister usually took Con’s gorgeous brand new red truck to school. Con had screwed up and his dad had taken the truck from him, so Con was riding the bus until the end of the school year. Con hated it, but Austin liked having his friend back on the bus with him.
Javi and Austin rose to greet their friend, and his mother shouted a warning back to the three of them as she closed the doors and the bus lurched forward. The three swayed as one, gripping the backs of the seats to catch their balance, laughing at the synchronized movement. Austin and Javi only had Con’s attention until the next stop, when they’d pick up Britt, Con’s beautiful but distant girlfriend. She would monopolize his time, so the three of them fit in as much conversation as they could in the less than ten minutes it took to get to Britt’s.
She got on in a pissy mood, because despite the bus shelter built beside the road, and the umbrella she carried, she’d managed to get soaked. She flipped her wet hair back, spraying everyone with droplets and causing his mother to exclaim, then reach over and wipe droplets off the inside of the windshield before she started driving again.
The morning was getting brighter, despite the downpour, but Austin wasn't paying much attention to the weather or the driving conditions until his mother slammed on the brakes, lurching everyone forward with a cry. Austin straightened to see his mother stiff-backed at the wheel, clearly anxious about something. But before he had a chance to ask what was wrong, the bus jolted beneath them, then inched forward. Austin was rising out of his seat to see what was going on when the front of the bus was suddenly swept sideways, pivoting them on the road.
He tumbled back into his seat and the next thing he knew, Lacey Davila had been pitched into his seat by the spinning of the bus. He managed to get his hand between her head and the window before she slammed into it.
Water was everywhere, under his feet, cascading down the aisle, splashing against the sides of the bus as the behemoth tilted, tilted, then landed on its side with a splash.
Austin was immediately submerged, Lacey on top of him pinning him down, below the surface. He pushed her, but she didn’t move, and a couple of panicked seconds later he, realized she had her backpack strap wrapped around her wrist, weighing her down. He felt her struggling to free herself from it, each of her frantic movements pushing against his chest, expelling precious air. He pulled out his pocketknife, popped open the blade with slick fingers, and managed to cut the backpack free. Finally, using the last of his strength, he pushed her up off his chest, rising with her to gulp air into his lungs greedily.
He was trapped between the seats of the bus, disoriented as the bus, on its side, was swept down by the current.
An alarm started blaring. He whipped around to see Con had opened the roof hatch, and now water was pouring in through the opening. The added flow made the bus rotate until it smacked into something, sending everyone slamming sideways, some of them losing their footing.
And then Poppy figured out how to open the side door, which was on the top of the bus. Thank God the bus had fallen on its right side and not its left, because there was no exit door there.
Poppy heaved herself up, out of the bus, and everyone surged toward that opening, arms outstretched. Lacey went up next, and Austin found himself right beneath the opening. Both girls reached in and grabbed his wrists, and he had to help them. He wasn't as heavy as Javi or Con but he wasn't going to depend on their strength to save him. He tried to stand on the sides of the bench seats but they were slick, and it was hard to find his footing, but he wasn't going to let the girls take the brunt of it.
Once the girls got his arms above the windows, he slipped free and pulled himself up, then nudged Lacey aside so he could help Poppy pull up Britt, then Con. Con took Lacey’s spot then, pushing his hair out of his face as he gave Austin a stricken look before he looked into the bus to see who was next.
Javi was the heaviest of them, easily two hundred and fifty pounds, and getting him through the window was going to be tough. At least four other people remained on the bus. Austin couldn't remember. Who was left on the bus? Claudia, Bridget and Sofia.
His mom.
His mom.
For some reason the thought gave him the strength to get Javi up and through the window, and once Javi was in position to help Con. Austin stuck his head in through the window and shouted for his mom. He looked toward the driver’s seat, but the bus was spinning and his fingers slipped off the edge of the window.
Shit. Shit. Where was his mom?
“I gotta go,” he said to Con, and swung his legs through the opening to drop back in.
