Just Down the Road (4 page)

Ten minutes later, Beau stepped outside. Border was already in his brother’s truck, but Beau stood in the dark and glanced back into the window. The two dates were still giggling as they slung scrambled eggs at each other. “I’ll never do that again,” he swore to himself.

The only thing he’d done right tonight was leave the tip. The rest of the evening, even the kiss in the car on the way out, he wished he could forget.

H
ARMONY
C
OUNTY
H
OSPITAL

T
INCH
T
URNER WOKE SLOWLY. HE WAS STILL ON THE
examining table, but someone had pulled up the sides as if fearing he’d fall off. They’d also dimmed the lights and covered him with a white blanket. He wouldn’t be surprised if Georgia hadn’t taken care of him while he was out. She was sneaky like that. Women with hearts were hard to stay mad at.

Touching his head, he felt the stitches running just below his hairline as he sat up. Most of his aches felt warmed over, as if he’d been in so many fights they all just started hurting again when some new wound came along.

“You feeling better?” the doctor in white asked as she stepped into the room. Blood, probably his, now stained her lab coat.

Without the blood in his eyes, he could see her clearly. Tall, very tall for a woman, with high cheekbones and light hair. “I’m fine.
Thanks for stitching me up, Doc.” With her starched coat and fair skin he decided she could pass for an angel.

“No problem. You’re free to go. I’m guessing from what Nurse Veasey said, you have a charge card on file.”

Tinch watched her, not knowing if she was trying to be funny. She didn’t look like the type. She was all business and proper. The kind of woman who’d never even talk to him unless she had to.

He stood slowly, feeling his body ache with each movement. When he finally faced her, he found himself looking into pale gray eyes. “I’ll be …”

The room began to spin and he leaned forward.

The doc caught him and pushed him back against the table. “I don’t think you’d better drive, Mr. Turner. I’ll have the nurse call whoever you want to come get you, or I could check you in for the night. We’ve got a few rooms open in maternity.”

Georgia stepped in the room and helped him lie back down. He closed his eyes and willed the world to settle. “Thanks, Doc,” he managed to say calmly, “but I’m not spending the night. Not in this place.”

“Who should I call, Tinch?” Georgia sounded concerned.

“No one. I’ll be all right in a minute. I can drive. Give me a minute and I’ll walk out of here.”

“I don’t think so. If Dr. Spencer says you need someone to drive you, we’re not letting you go until her orders are filled.” Georgia had that general stance about her that hinted she would fight if need be.

Tinch would have laughed if he could have. Two women wouldn’t stop him. No one ever stopped him from doing whatever he wanted to do. “I got to go home.” He decided to try reason first. Too bad it must have dripped out with his blood.

Georgia patted his arm, but her words were for the doctor. “You rented that place way out on Timber Line Road, didn’t you, Doctor?”

She waited for the doctor to nod, then added, “Tinch lives in the only other house out that direction.”

When the doctor didn’t comment, Georgia set her plan. “You could give him a lift. He’s just down the road.”

Tinch opened one eye enough to see the doc shake her head.

“I’m not sure it would be the safe thing to do,” she said.

Georgia laughed. “He’s not dangerous to anyone but himself. You’d be safer driving him than being in a car with him on the road.”

“I don’t need a ride,” he said, wondering if he could manage to stand and make it to his truck before he passed out. He’d slept there before; he could do it again. “I’m not sure I’d be safe with the doc.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Tinch.” Georgia was in no mood to listen. “If you’re not going to take a room for the night, someone has got to drive you home.”

Dr. Spencer looked like she’d been asked to pick up a stray dog on a busy highway. “All right,” she frowned. “I’ll pull my car up if you’ll wheel him out. You’re right, he’d be a danger on the road.”

She was gone before he could argue, so he turned on Georgia. “I don’t need or want any help. I’m fine.”

Georgia pulled a wheelchair from the corner and helped him into it. “I’m not taking responsibility for you passing out and running off in a ditch. Let someone help you, Tinch, before it’s too late.”

Tinch fought down nausea. “That Dr. Spencer didn’t look too excited about playing Good Samaritan, Georgia.”

“The doc doesn’t like men, any men from what I can see, so you be polite to her. If she snubs the rich ones who come by to flirt with her, you can imagine what she must think of the bottom-of-a-barrel ones like you.”

“Thanks for the compliment.” He frowned. He’d never considered himself in any barrel, much less at the bottom of one. He’d loved Lori Anne since they were in middle school and never really cared one way or the other what any other girl thought of him.

“You smell like whiskey and look like something the cat wouldn’t drag in.” Georgia was on a roll. “I bet you didn’t even clean up before you came to town. You got dirt under your fingernails and horse shit still on your boots.” She pushed him toward the doors. “I swear, Tinch, germs wouldn’t even live on you.”

“You finished?” he asked, figuring he probably deserved anything she said. She’d guessed right about him not cleaning up. He’d worked with the horses until dark, then climbed in his truck and headed to town for a few drinks.

“No, I’m not finished,” she answered as she shoved him outside. “Lori Anne died three years ago, and nothing is going to bring her back. It’s time you got on with your life.”

Tinch didn’t hate Georgia. He hated the whole world. No one seemed to understand. He didn’t have a life to go on with without Lori Anne. She’d been his best friend through school, his lover as soon as they both turned sixteen, and his wife the winter after they’d both graduated from high school. With his parents dead, Lori Anne had been his friend, his lover, his wife, his family, his world. When she’d died of cancer, she’d left him hollow and alone. She left him with nothing inside or out.

He stood as a tiny BMW pulled up to the curb. “How am I supposed to get in that thing? It looks like she drove it off a bumper car ride.” He leaned down to see the doctor at the wheel glaring at him. “I’ve seen toys in kids’ meals bigger than this thing.”

Georgia opened the door and helped him in. “You’re going, so stop complaining unless you want to sleep in the maternity ward.”

“No thanks.” He swore as he folded into a pretzel and Georgia shoved.

As he leaned back in the seat, the nurse patted his arm again. “I’m sorry, Tinch, but it’s time someone said something to you. All your friends are worried about you.”

She closed the door without hearing him say, “Tell all my friends to go to hell.”

Thank goodness, the doctor didn’t say a word as she drove away from the hospital. He caught a glance of her in the fading light. A statue of starch and ice, he decided. Strange that such a cold woman would pick a profession like doctor, or maybe it was just him she was so cold toward.

She didn’t ask which house was his. She just drove through the night as he leaned back and wished everything and everyone would go away.

When she pulled up in front of his place, she stopped and said, “You need any help getting in?”

“No,” he snapped as he fumbled for the door.

It took every ounce of his concentration to make it out of the car and up the steps. He heard her drive away as he opened the door and moved inside.

Tinch made it two more feet before he crumbled to his knees. He didn’t cry or scream or cuss. He just leaned forward, his head in his hands, and wished for the thousandth time that he could stop breathing.

A mile away Addison pulled her BMW into the dilapidated garage and walked across the darkened yard to the house she’d rented. As always, she’d forgotten to leave the porch light on. Her only excuse was she’d never lived anywhere but the city. She’d never known such blackness on moonless nights before.

Her body felt numb, she was so tired. When she stepped on the porch, she looked back south toward Tinch Turner’s house. She could barely make out the outline of his place against the sky. He hadn’t turned on a light either. Maybe, like her, he liked the shadows now and then. Stepping inside, she walked across the living room and into her bedroom, stripping off clothes as she moved. By the time she bumped into her bed, she wore only a T-shirt and panties as she tumbled into the unmade bed she’d left almost twenty-four hours before.

“Sleep,” she whispered, knowing that tonight, finally, she would.

Hours later, a knock on her door woke her. For a minute, Addison couldn’t figure out where she was, and then she told herself she was safe. She was in control of her own life. No one was pushing her. Her family didn’t even know where she lived.

When the knock came again, she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and went to find the noise.

A tall man wearing a western shirt, well-worn and well-fitting jeans, and a cowboy hat stood on her porch. Without the blood and dirt, she almost didn’t recognize Tinch Turner, the bothersome neighbor she’d treated last night. The thought crossed her mind not to answer, but since she hadn’t even latched the screen door last night, and the wooden door stood wide open, it would have been hard to act like she wasn’t home. All he had to do was turn around and he’d see her standing on the other side of the screen.

While she thought about what to do, he shifted and she couldn’t help but think that he was a man built in balance. He was tall, but not lanky, slim, but not thin, with shoulders that looked strong from work and not from pumping iron. He might spend his nights drinking and getting into fights, but he spent his days outside.

Before she could move, he turned and faced her.

She froze, unsure what to do.

His piercing blue eyes drank her in with a slow movement from her toes to her hair.

“What are you doing here?” Addison pulled the blanket closer, as if it offered her some protection.

“I came to say I’m sorry for not thanking you for bringing me home last night.” He smiled, showing straight white teeth, which surprised her. If he’d really been in as many fights as Nurse Veasey claimed, he should have been toothless by now.

“Forget it.” She expected him to turn away, but he didn’t move. Maybe her one neighbor was one too many, Addison thought.

He finally shifted. “I was wondering if I could ride into town with you next time you go. I need to pick up my truck. Ten miles is a little far to walk.”

“Why don’t you call someone?” She didn’t want to get to know Tinch Turner. They had nothing in common, nothing to talk about. With her work schedule she didn’t have time to make friends, and the last thing she wanted was a man in her life. Between a demanding father still trying to direct her life and the memory of a husband from her teens who’d used her as a punching bag, she’d had enough.

“I don’t have a phone,” he said. “Never needed one until today.”

The idea that someone might not have a phone, even a cell phone, was out of her realm of reasoning. She’d gotten her first phone when she was in grade school and carried a cell since high school. “How’d you get to my porch?”

“I walked. I don’t think it’s a mile between my house and yours. If you skip the road and head across the field, it’s not even that far. When the Rogerses lived here, they’d always ring that bell if they needed me and I’d run over.” He pointed to the corner of the porch as if she might not have noticed the huge bell mounted on the railing. “Course, they were both hard of hearing, so I always said I’d fire off a shot and hit the bell if I needed them.”

Addison thought of slamming the door. She didn’t have time for small talk. “Look.” She decided to be direct. “You woke me up. I worked a twenty-hour shift and I’m not due back till noon.” She felt for her watch, trying to remember where she’d left it. “What time is it, anyway?”

“Noon,” he said. “I figured you’d be awake.”

“Oh no!” She looked past him at the cloudy day. If she’d been guessing, she would have thought it was closer to dawn.

Running toward the bedroom, she yelled over her shoulder. “I’ll be ready in ten minutes. You can ride along, but I’ve got to get to the hospital fast. I’m already on duty.”

Addison showered, pulled on clean clothes, and walked out of her bedroom with her hair still wet.

If she’d thought about it, she might have guessed she’d find Tinch Turner waiting on the porch for her.

Though all the shutters were open, she saw no sign of him outside, or on the porch. Shrugging, she decided he wasn’t her problem.

One step more and she halted. The cowboy was standing in her kitchen, a tea towel tucked into his jeans like an apron and his hat pushed back.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Anger and panic warred inside her. He was in her house! She knew he was wild, probably violent and possibly crazy.