But Dwight couldn’t let Sarah get away that easy. He
tossed the sunglasses aside, climbed into Dottie and cranked up the air conditioner.
A few miles
down the freeway, Troy pointed out the next exit. “Pull off here so I can pick up some snacks at the gas station.”
Dwight glanced at the clock on the dash. “We’ve only been on the road for ten minutes.”
“Come on, Pops. You didn’t give me enough time to eat breakfast before we left,” he whined.
Dwight looked over at the last of a Twinkie Troy was shoving into his pie hole. “
Whatta ya call
that
?”
“This isn’t breakfast. I found it in the couch cushion.”
“Well, eat somethin’ outta your ice chest.”
“It’s only got beer in it.”
Dwight squinted through the windshield and eased up on the accelerator. Some coffee might be nice or a can of Jolt Cola. He didn’t know how he was going to stay awake for nine hours straight. Sure, he could catch some shuteye and let Troy take a turn driving, but Dwight was afraid he’d wake up and they’d be in Ft. Lauderdale or Tijuana or somewhere. A sense of direction was not one of Troy’s few talents.
Few
. Dwight chuckled at that. Few was an understatement. The only thing Troy was good at was cramming his face with food.
“All right,” Dwight relented. He could use a new pair of sunglasses anyway.
By the time Troy settled back into the passenger seat with an extra-large slurpie and a bag of candy bars, Dwight cursed the day Sarah was born.
* * *
The next morning, after Nathan gave Sarah a ride to the salon, he stopped her before she could get out of the truck. “Sarah, I have something for you.”
She frowned and turned back to face him.
He pulled out a bag from behind the seat and handed it to her. “I thought you might like these.”
She peered into the bag and gasped.
“Felicity Johns books!?”
“I saw you reading one of her books and the lady at the bookstore said she was a popular author.”
As far as Sarah was concerned, Felicity Johns was the
only
author. “She’s my favorite!”
“I don’t know if you already have those ones, but—“
“Oh, no, I don’t.” She turned the book over in her hands. “Oh, Nathan, this is the one I was looking for at the library.” The other book was a copy of the one she’d left behind for Dwight.
“Well, good, I’m glad you like them.”
“I
love
them! And these are brand new, too!” Sarah exclaimed. She ran her fingers over the smooth spine and flipped through the crisp pages. The books hadn’t been cracked open by anyone but her.
She scooted closer and threw her arms around him. “Thank you so very much, Nathan!”
“You’re very welcome.”
She pulled back, cupped his face in her hands and kissed him on the lips.
“How do you do that, Nathan? You’re constantly surprising me.”
“What can I sa
y?” he said with a grin. “I’m just full of surprises.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Grabbed by the Throat
While waiting for Nathan to pick her up for lunch, Sarah checked her scheduled appointments at the front desk. Kim came up from behind her and peeked over Sarah’s shoulder at the computer. Kim glanced at Sarah’s wrist and glared at the plastic bracelet. Sarah moved aside so Kim could get a better look at the computer and tucked the bracelet under her long sleeve. It seemed silly for a grown woman to wear a plastic toy but it reminded Sarah of how fun life could be with the right person.
“Do you have any plans for lunch?” Kim asked. Being nice didn’t come natural
to her but at least she was trying.
“Nathan is taking me
for Chinese food.”
“
Oh. I noticed you’ve been spending a lot of time with
him
.”
Sarah shrugged.
“Yes, I guess I have.”
“Just be careful not to piss him off.
Nathan Connors has a reputation for being a…” Kim pursed her lips while thinking of the right word. “…a
loose cannon
.”
Sarah frowned. What was
that
supposed to mean? It sounded like something people used to say about Dwight. Was Kim just trying to cause trouble or was there some truth to her warning?
“What is
that
supposed to mean?” Sarah asked out loud. Kim was really starting to get on Sarah’s nerves. She’d given Kim the benefit of the doubt because everyone had described her as standoffish but making up stories about Nathan was just unacceptable.
Kim l
eaned in close like she was sharing some juicy gossip. “You know he has a history of having a temper, don’t you?”
“No.
” Sarah’s heart beat a little faster. “I didn’t realize that.”
“Just Google him.
The video is plastered all over the internet. You can’t miss it.”
There was video
online of Nathan losing his temper? “Kim, what are you talking about?”
“
You don’t
know
?” Her voice dripped with sardonic amusement. “A couple of years ago Nathan went all ballistic on some fan. It was pretty crazy.”
“Oh.” It was all Sarah could say.
Kim
wasn’t
making up stories about Nathan just because she was jealous? Sarah’s sweet, gentle Nathan actually went ballistic on a fan?
“I’m sorry,”
Kim said before turning on her heel and walking back to her station. “I thought you knew.”
Sarah w
alked toward the break room in a daze. The only images swirling through her mind were flashbacks of Nathan’s tenderness over the last few weeks. And last night…Well, last night had been the first time she’d ever experienced such pleasure. The thought of him “going ballistic” was downright preposterous.
Then Sarah remembered Kim
had mentioned a video. Seeing proof of the incident was the only way she could believe Nathan was capable of such a thing.
S
arah was so distracted she almost ran right smack into Destiny who was coming out of the break room. “Do you have internet on that phone?” Sarah asked her. She could have used the internet on the computer at the front desk, but she wanted to be discreet.
“Yeah,”
Destiny answered like she’d just been asked if the sky was blue. “Just type in what you’re looking for here.” She showed Sarah the screen and how to operate the phone.
“Thank you.”
“No problem. Just bring it back to me when you’re done.”
Destiny walked out, leaving Sarah all alone in the
break room.
Sarah paced the room weighing the repercussions of what she was about to do. If what
Kim had said was true, everything was about to change.
All
Sarah had to do was type in Nathan’s name and dozens of articles came up about the incident. Apparently it had caused quite a stir in the hockey community and media.
She
took a deep breath, pressed Play and the video showed Nathan on the ice, skating away from the net. All of a sudden, as he walked toward the tunnel in the direction of the locker room, he reached for the fan on his right and grabbed his shirt and yanked. Officials and staff frantically pulled the two apart.
Sarah gasped.
It felt like she just took a blow to the stomach, a feeling she was all too familiar with. Her hands started shaking and she gripped the phone so she wouldn’t drop it.
At first, she didn’t believe it was him but there was no mistaking
his number 33 in white against the blue jersey and the letters spelling out Connors right above it.
Sarah replayed the video.
In the blink of an eye, Nathan lunged at the spectator and grabbed him by the throat. The video wasn’t the best quality and the incident happened so fast, but it was all Sarah needed to know. Nathan Connors was a very dangerous man.
“Sarah, honey, do you think you can take a walk-in for me? Or do you have plans for lunch?”
Sarah looked up from the phone and swallowed down her emotions.
Peach stood in the doorway, anticipating an answer. “Uh, Sure. I’ll be right there. Just give me a minute to take care of something. ”
As soon as Sarah saw Nathan’s truck pull up
outside, she jogged outside to intercept him. She didn’t want to cause a scene inside the salon.
Without a second thought, she
walked up to his the truck and around to the driver’s side door. Luckily, the window was rolled down so she could put her hands on the windowsill so he couldn’t open the door to get out.
A smile lit up his face when he sa
w her but she didn’t return it.
“I can’t see you anymore
,” she said quickly.
His smile faded away and his brows knit together.
“Why?”
The disappointment in his voice and the frown on his face were genuine
, but Sarah couldn’t let that fool her. She hadn’t run 600 miles from Dwight to be with someone just like him.
That was the thing
though. A niggling in her gut told her,
screamed
at her, that Nathan was different. She’d witnessed his kindness first hand. Hadn’t he proved himself of that every time they were together? But Sarah ignored the doubt, pushed aside the voice in her heart and did what she had to do.
“I saw the video.”
Nathan’s face drained and he sat expressionless.
“Oh,” was all he said. And then, “I understand.”
It was as if a security gate had come down behind his eyes, blocking all emotion. Sarah didn’t know what she expected him to do but all he did was sit there staring at the steering wheel. He didn’t try to explain or argue or…
anything
.
“Why would you do something like that?
” she asked on the verge of tears. “How
could
you?” She couldn’t let him get away that easy. She had to know what would cause him to do such a thing. To a
fan
of all people. Hockey players got into fights all the time, but to assault a spectator?
“It doesn’t matter now
,” he murmured.
“It matters to me.”
But he didn’t answer. He just stared at the same spot on the steering wheel.
Sarah sighed.
“I have to go. I have a client waiting. I’ll be by your house after work to get my things.”
S
arah pushed away from the truck and started for the salon. She blocked out the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach along with the sound of Nathan’s truck engine as he drove away. Regret washed over her. She’d just put an end to the best thing that had ever happened to her.
She ran
through the salon door, tears blurring her vision.
* * *
Dwight’s Datsun had been around since the Nixon administration and had been good to him over the years. It got him where he needed to go and he had faith it wouldn’t fail him during the trip north.
What Dwight didn’t take in to account was The Grapevine. The Grapevine was a long, steep grade that st
ood between him and Red Valley.
The little truck struggled up the hill and as the speedometer
hovered around forty-five, motorhomes and big rigs started to pass them in the left lane.
“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Troy complained.
Dwight squinted at the instruments on the dash. Dottie’s temperature gage had been broken for years so he had no idea if she was running hot. “I’ve got it floored,” he growled.
“Sheesh.”
Troy popped a mini donut into his mouth and licked the powdered sugar from his fingers.
“Shut up. I thought I heard
sumpthin’.”
Dwight didn’t know much about cars.
Just the important stuff like where to put the gas nozzle and the best places to hide drugs. But when smoke billowed out from under the hood Dwight knew enough to ease over onto the shoulder.
Dwight turned off the ignition and opened his door.
The shoulder was narrow and it was damn near suicide getting out without a truck driving by and ripping his door off its hinges.
He
managed to squeeze out without getting killed and walked around to the front of the truck.
Troy got out and
stood next to his father staring at the hood.
The sun beat down on
Dwight’s shoulders and his legs ached from being scrunched up behind the wheel. Cars and trucks zoomed by just a few feet away. It was hot and windy and the dry air stuck in his throat and made his teeth feel gritty. Anger flooded every fiber of his being and he pinched down on the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to
kill
Sarah.”