Seaside Avenue (Cedar Cove #7)(62)

“Another two minutes and we both would’ve been goners.”

Pete’s truck was tipped on its side about two hundred feet down the road.

“What do we do now?” she asked helplessly.

“Either we walk back to town or we wait for someone to drive by,” Pete told her. “I say we wait.”

“Okay.” She really didn’t know what else she could do, anyway. And he was the one who was familiar with these roads, this land.

They sat down on a patch of flattened grass. Now that the adrenaline had subsided, she felt weak, exhausted. Looking at her rescuer, Linnette saw that Pete was well over six feet. Tall enough so she had to tilt her head back. He was lean, too. He’d been wearing a cowboy hat when she first saw him, but that had long since blown away.

He wasn’t what you’d typically describe as handsome. Yet there was something compelling about his appearance, especially his brilliant blue eyes.

His cheekbones were strongly defined, and his nose looked as if it’d been broken once. The dimple in his chin drew her attention, too. All in all, she had to admit she found him attractive.

At least an hour passed before someone drove through. As they sat there, chatting in a desultory manner, she began to feel more and more uncomfortable in Pete’s company. Fortunately, he didn’t remind her of the way she’d blurted out all the embarrassing elements of her life—like the fact that Cal had dumped her after falling in love with Vicki. Still, it hung between them.

The rancher who drove them into town dropped Linnette off at 3 of a Kind. By then she had trouble even meeting Pete’s eyes. Most humiliating was her realization that, while she couldn’t stop babbling, Pete hadn’t shared a single detail of his own life. The sum total she’d learned was that he lived on his family’s ranch. For all she knew, he could be married with a houseful of children. Not that she was looking for a romance. She was running away from one and had no plans to involve herself in another.

“Thank you again,” she said over her shoulder. She waved at the rancher and at Pete, who’d lowered the passenger window of the pickup.

“Like I told you, Dennis Urlacher can tow your car back to town,” he called out to her. “He’ll give you a fair estimate on repairs, too.”

“Yes, thanks, I appreciate that.” Red-faced, she hurried into the restaurant. At this point, her car was the least of her concerns. They might never even find it. The damn thing could be in the next county by now or at the bottom of some lake. Linnette was just grateful she wasn’t inside it.

“You okay?” Buffalo Bob asked from the tavern side of the restaurant. “Merrily was worried when she remembered you were driving to the McKenna place today. We heard there was a tornado warning out there. You see anything?”

Rather than launch into a long explanation, Linnette simply nodded. Doing her best to look composed, she walked past the men sitting at the bar and made her way to the stairs that led to the second floor. Dashing up the steps, she ran down the long hallway to the very rear of the building, where her room was situated.

She threw herself on the bed, breathing hard, torn between relief at surviving and humiliation at her own disclosures.

Thirty years from now, her experience in the tornado would be a wonderful story to relate to her grandchildren—if she had any. Naturally, Linnette would embellish it a bit, add some humor. At the moment, however, she could see nothing amusing in the circumstances. Nothing whatsoever.

A few days went by, and the traumatic events of that morning were relegated to the back of her mind. She refused to linger on them. Every time she thought about the tornado and everything that followed, her face heated up as if she had a bad case of sunburn.

Her parents had phoned, of course, after seeing images of the destruction on the TV news, and so had Maddy. She’d briefly described what had happened—without mentioning Pete. Everyone praised her clearheadedness and quick action, which made her cringe with guilt. Fortunately, she hadn’t seen Pete since that fateful day.

Then on Sunday afternoon, while she was waiting tables by herself, he sauntered into 3 of a Kind. He saw her and inclined his head in recognition. Choosing a corner table, he pulled out a chair and placed his Stetson—obviously a new one—on the empty seat beside him.

With no other alternative, Linnette brought him a menu and a glass of ice water.

“Good to see you again,” Pete said, smiling up at her.

Not trusting herself to speak, Linnette bit her tongue and nodded.

“What did you find out about your car?” he asked as he opened his menu.

“It’s a write-off,” she told him. There was major structural damage. One side was crushed when the car landed against a tree a few fields from where she’d stopped. Most of the glass was shattered and the damage to the frame was extensive. Although Linnette complained every month when she wrote out a hefty car insurance payment, she was grateful for it now. According to the adjuster, she had the go-ahead to order a new car.

“I’m glad,” Pete said, glancing away from his menu. He chose the meat loaf and mashed potato special.

“What about…your truck?” It seemed only polite to ask.

He shrugged. “A few dents. I figure they add character.”

She liked his attitude.

“Just like a broken heart adds character to a person…”