Runaway Bride (13 page)

Savannah stared at her friend in
disbelief. Had getting married been her top priority?

"Did he ask you out?"

Janet began storming her with
questions. How could she answer? What could she say? How could she
lie her way out of this one?

She was in too deep to admit there was
nothing going on. Besides, a short fictional romance with Ben could
afford Chad time to come out with the truth.

"Oh Janet, when he kisses
me...."

"I'm so happy for you."

Savannah rolled her eyes and
groaned.

"Well honey, you have to get back up on
a horse when they throw you. Just because you and Chad didn't tie
the knot, doesn't mean there isn't hope out there for you. And you
sound pretty smitten with this Sheriff."

She'd have to put up with Janet's
conniving for another week. Would this little adventure solve her
problems at home, for Janet was sure to tell everyone. Janet just
couldn't keep a secret.

It was simple, her mind clicked. She'd
pretend she had regular dates in town with Ben and go watch a movie
in the next town away from Junction. What could a little lie hurt?
No one would know. Janet would never know, and she'd be rid of this
albatross around her neck. She could finally pick up with her own
life... maybe even find a life. After all, if Chad wasn't going to
explain things any time soon, she had to come up with something
plausible that everyone
would
believe.

"So when you gonna see him
again?"

"Tomorrow night." she lied
perfectly.

"Oh this is exciting. I love it. A
Sheriff. What a story. Your mom won't believe it. She'll have a fit
at first, and then she'll just be so happy for you. By the way,
your boss called. You've been fired."

Savannah hung her head. She expected
it, but what was she going to do with the rest of her life? Up
until a few days ago she had happily lived with her parents, had a
decent job and what looked like a great future.

A month ago, she'd been so happy,
planning the wedding, working all hours so she could have a
honeymoon. Now, she had no husband, no job, and it seriously looked
like no future.

Listening to Janet going on and on
about Sheriff Ben Hogg as though he were already in the family. Yet
keeping up the guise could get tedious. Janet continued plotting
how she should act around him, what she should wear, asking her
personal questions she didn't want to answer. But one summer and
this would all be over. Eventually, she'd go home, when Chad
straightened this mess up. She'd stay a week or two here at the
Dude Ranch, pretending to date the Sheriff, then meet her Aunt.
Then maybe she'd plan what to do with the rest of her
life.

But the first sign of trouble showed up
when the Sheriff didn't.

"He's not picking you up?" Janet
asked.

"No, he's working late and wanted me to
meet him."

"That's reasonable, I guess. But don't
let it become a habit."

Whew, I got through that
one
, she sighed as she drove into the next town and
pulled into the grocery parking lot across from the Theater. She
went in and sat through two movies. She had gorged herself on
popcorn and cokes and enjoyed the movie no end, so the evening
wasn't a total loss.

It had been a murder mystery and she
had sat there plotting her own life to the movie. She was killing
Chad, hiding the body in her parents’ car. Then there was Ben
investigating the murder. He chased her until he caught her, then
pinned her to the wall and demanded she admit her crime. She stuck
her hands out to be cuffed and the movie ended.

Climbing back into her car, at a
respectably late hour she noticed a storm had come up. It was
raining heavily as she pulled back onto the highway. She switched
her wipers on and turned the radio on.

But something was wrong. All wrong. She
didn't recognize any of the land markers. She must have missed the
turn off for the dude ranch. How could she be sure? She wasn't
familiar with this stretch of the highway.

She sat up in the seat and turned the
radio off. There was nothing but static on it anyway. The
lightening was frightening, and the thunder seemed to echo through
the small car.

She grimaced. To top it off, she was
lost.

Not one sign. No traffic, and she was
lost on the highway to hell.

She pulled over to the side of the road
and killed the engine. She reached in the backseat for her map and
turned on the overhead light to read it. She just couldn't tell
where she was. She hadn't paid that much attention; she'd been too
busy plotting her murder mystery out, to find any land
markers.

The highway she left on was a four lane
highway, this was a two lane. She had taken a wrong road somewhere.
She tried to remember where the road had forked and how far back.
She'd just have to turn around and head the other way. The solution
seemed simple enough.

Checking her mirrors she saw one car,
and it was far off, so she turned around and headed back the way
she came. Then it happened, a tire blew and she skidded to a fast
stop on the side of the road again, nearly bumping her head on the
dash.

She groaned, unfastened her seat belt
and checked herself. None of these kinds of things happened to her
back in Dallas. How could she possibly have so much bad luck? It
made no sense. All she wanted to do was get back to the dude ranch.
The town hadn't been but about ten miles down the highway. There
was only one fork in the road. So, she'd taken the wrong road. Now,
she was faced with a storm that seemed destined to last the night
and a flat tire which she didn't know how to change. She silently
cursed herself for not checking the tires before she left. However,
under the circumstances, she couldn't be blamed for that one. But
how could she have known she would run into so much trouble.
Besides, this was a rental car, she wasn't buying tires for a
rental. She checked her cell phone. It was dead. She'd forgotten to
plug it into the charger. Great! Was there anything she could do
right?

It was too much. All she could do was
cry. She laid her head down on the steering wheel and cried like a
baby. It was a release, and it helped her emotionally, but it
wasn't going to get her out of this predicament.

Suddenly she heard a tap on the window.
She started not to react at all, thinking it could be anyone, and
with not the best of intentions on their minds. But realizing the
person on the other side wasn't going away when they tapped on the
window again, she jerked up from the wheel and glanced at a dark
looming shadow. Then a bright light shone right in her face. She
winced.

Before she knew what was happening,
someone reached inside the car and pulled her out and into the
rain.

"Damn little fool. What were you
thinking? Where were you going?" The very familiar voice
asked.

She knew that voice, and she shivered
when she looked up to see those cold brown eyes staring at her
again through a bolt of lightning.

Ben Hogg, and looking more handsome
than she remembered.

"I got lost..."

Her voice didn't sound like her
own.

"Lost?" He politely opened the door of
the squad car to shove her inside and went around to the other side
to get in.

"What are you doing out so late, and
alone?"

"I
am
an adult, Sheriff." She rolled her eyes at him. What was he,
her father, for goodness sake?

"Really, I wonder."

She bit her lip. Well, he was right,
she really did look like an idiot, but it wasn't her
fault.

"I had a flat."

"No kidding. Well, leave it to you to
find disaster."

"Haven't you ever had car trouble?" she
blasted back this time, unwilling to let him get the best of her
again.

"Not recently, no. And not in this kind
of weather."

He noted her dress clinging to her and
grabbed a blanket from the backseat and threw over her. "Cover up
before you catch a chill."

“You always carry blankets with
you?”

“This isn’t my car, it belongs to my
deputy, he usually has his dog with him, and he carries it to wipe
him off when it rains. Any more questions?”

“I guess not,” she settled
down.

Naturally, he wouldn't notice that she
was dressed to the nine's. That she'd borrowed one of Janet's
dresses and as she tried so hard to impress her with her lovesick
act.

"Look Sheriff I didn't ask for your
help," she began only to be cut off.

"No, what were you going to do, sit
there till someone came along to fix it for you?"

"If I had to, yes." It didn't seem
unreasonable to her.

"And what if they'd have cut your
throat instead of fixed your tire? Did you even consider anything
like that?"

"Then I'd be dead and out of your
hair."

"Don't you have a cell phone?" He
asked.

"Yes...but...oh, it doesn't matter."
She turned away to dispel a sudden rush of tears. Then biting them
back, she faced him again. "I hate them...I hate gadgets, you can
never rely on them." When he glanced at her strangely she went on
to explain. "Okay, so that's weird too, these days. But haven't you
ever noticed how dangerous a cell phone can be? Everyone carries
them....everywhere! They drive with them, shop with them. People
just quit paying attention to what they are doing."

He glanced at her again, and something
softened in his expression. He looked even better than the last
time she'd seen him. Darn the man.

He nearly smiled.

Her whole body responded. How could
that be? This man, this particular man, wasn't the least bit
interested in her; he'd made that clear since the
disturbance.

"Where are you taking me?" She asked
when he started the squad car. "Not to jail again, I hope. Getting
lost isn't against the law, is it?"

"No, but in your case it should be. To
the dude ranch, isn't that where you are staying?" came his fast
retort.

"Yes."

Then without warning, a loud noise
alerted him to the fact that he had a flat too.

"For crying out loud, I don't believe
it." He pounded his fist against the steering wheel. He glanced
over at her and this time his temper flared. "What are you—a
jinx?"

Savannah's mouth popped open, but she
didn't have a reply.

"Stay here," he commanded as he got out
of the car and checked the damage. She heard him mumbling something
as he searched the trunk for a jack and slung tools and things
around for several minutes.

Before long he was back and soaking
wet. His expression more angry than before.

"What's wrong, why didn't you fix
it?"

He grimaced and looked away, "The spare
is gone."

"Gone?" she screeched, "but it can't
be. I mean you are a policeman, and you are bound to have a
spare."

"I usually do, yes, but now that I
think about it, I borrowed his spare and forgot to replace it with
another."

"And this isn’t your car…"

"Right. But I don't see as how I owe
you an explanation."

She felt herself giggling, and tried to
stop, but the more perplexed his face got the more she
giggled.

When he sent her a frown she no longer
withheld her laughter.

"This isn't funny," he
bellowed.

"I don't know. It's pretty funny to
me."

"We're not in a position to laugh right
now." This time his face looked less serious.

"So what are we going to do?" she asked
when he was silent too long.

"The old Dugan ranch is about a ten
minute walk from here. You think you can manage to keep up with me
in this weather?"

Savannah sobered and nodded.

He radioed for help, but the dispatcher
was quick to douse all hope of rescue for a while.

"Sorry Sheriff, Jim's still over in
Sweetwater taking that test this weekend, he didn't pass the first
one, they let him have a retest, and Martin's probably taking care
of his stock. But I'll try to raise him on the radio."

"Thanks, we'll be at the Dugan
ranch."

"I'll get right on it."

He gave Savannah his rain slicker from
the trunk, and adjusted his Stetson. He wore a light jacket and she
knew he was protected almost as well, so she didn't balk about the
rain slicker.

Taking her hand in his he led the way.
She hadn't expected him to touch her and the contact brought
immediate awareness. Sharp, clear awareness that told her she was
in over her head this time. However, that awareness simmered as he
pulled her through the rain and mud.

His long strides were hard to keep up
with, but he kept a firm grip on her hand. When she nearly fell
down a slight ravine, he grabbed at her, pulling her close. The
intimacy of the act was lost on the pouring rain though.