Part 1 (2/2)

It wasn't doing all that much for her, either. Denise sighed. She, too, wished that they were ”there” already. Even with the windows in the cab wideopen, there was no relief. It felt as if the air had been packed in tight little boxes, all stacked up on her chest, all weighing heavily. And this last stretch of road before Serendipity seemed endless.

She jerked her eyes open again. d.a.m.n it, what was the matter with her?

”You look tired, Denise. Why don't you let me drive for a while?”

Denise slanted a quick glance toward her father. If she looked tired, Tate Cavanaugh looked even more so. Her father had been looking steadily more and more haggard as the months pa.s.sed. There had to be something wrong for him to have allowed her to take over running the company. The s.h.i.+ft wasn't anything that had been agreed to out loud, just something that had slowly evolved over the last six months. She did more and more, and he let her. The old Tate never would have allowed it.

But if she so much as said anything on the subject, or urged him to see a doctor, she was roundly put in her place and told that. ”Everything's fine. A man my age's earned the right to look a little tired now and then.”

It wouldn't have bothered her if it had been ”now and then.” It was the constant that worried her. But worrying never changed anything and she knew it was useless to let the emotion get the better of her.

Most emotion was useless, she thought Except for when it came to loving her family.

Turning to look at her father again, Denise did her best to sound blase. ”Not on your life. I've waited twenty-six years to get my hands on this wheel. I'm not about to let it go now. You had your turn, now it's mine.”

”Mama, look out!” Audra shrieked.

The sudden, alerting cry jarred every single nerve in Denise's body. Almost subconsciously, she began turning the wheel sharply to the right even before she fully focused on the road.

And into the path of an oncoming Jeep.

Terror bit down hard.

”Oh my G.o.d.”

Denise wasn't sure if the words had come out of her mouth, or were just thundering in her brain over and over again, like hail angrily pelting a tin roof. Along with the cry came fragments of prayers.

Tires screeched and whined as she fought not to jackknife the rig or hit the car that had, only a second before, not been there.

Had it?

Her arms and lungs were aching, straining against fear and steel. Sweat poured down her back, plastering her lime green T-s.h.i.+rt to her body. She turned the wheel into the skid, still praying. Forgetting the moment they were out of her mouth, she shouted words of rea.s.surances to her father and daughter. All she was really conscious of was that their lives were in her hands. Hands that would have been trembling had they been free.

Five seconds felt like forever. Her daughter's cries and her father's voice a.s.saulted her ears. None of it was intelligible to Denise. She couldn't make out any of the words. All she heard was the sound of fear.

And the pounding of her own heart.

Arms feeling as if they were about to break off, Denise was both exhausted and strung out by the time the big-rig finally screeched to a resounding halt. A lumbering dinosaur tired of the game.

Denise blinked back tears she didn't remember gathering in her eyes. It was over.

”Are you okay, baby?” she cried. Not waiting for an answer, she ran her hands over the girl's small body and face to rea.s.sure herself.

For once, Audra didn't object to the name. The golden head bobbed up and down.

”Uh-huh.” Her mother's daughter, Audra stubbornly swallowed a sob, refusing to let tears fall. Tears were for scared babies. As long as Mama was there, everything was okay.

Pressing Audra to her, Denise raised her eyes to her father, almost afraid of what she would see. But he appeared to be unhurt.

”Daddy?”

The slumped figure straightened, pressing his shoulders against the back of the seat behind him. Tate shrugged away the concern he saw in his daughter's face.

”Shook up, some, but everything's where it's supposed to be.” Tate let out a long breath, waiting for it and the pounding of his heart to become steady again. ”Told you I should have taken over the wheel.”

There was no accusation in his voice. There never was. Denise knew that right now, he was simply a parent who believed that he was omnipotent when it came to keeping his family safe.

She knew the feeling, except that for several very hairy moments, it had been s.n.a.t.c.hed from her. But they were all alive and that was all that mattered.

The door of the cab suddenly flew open on her side. ”Everyone all right in here?”

Startled, it was all that she could do not to jump in response. Heart still pounding, Denise turned from her family to look down into the face of a man with the most soulfully blue eyes she had ever seen.

The next moment, she braced herself for the tirade she knew was coming. They were the outsiders and she had almost run over someone she a.s.sumed was a ”townie.” Someone who belonged here, the way they didn't.

She pressed her lips together, eyeing him guardedly. ”We're okay.”

The woman was decidedly pale, Will Cutler thought He had no idea who she was, or what she looked like normally, but he sincerely doubted anyone had a complexion quite that white. Small wonder. There had been several moments back there, after he'd swerved out of the way, when he thought the rig was going to wind up skidding along on its side. Or worse.

Scrambling to her knees, Audra peered around her mother's body to look at the stranger. Curiosity had been her constant companion from the first moment she'd opened her eyes. Now was no different.

”Yeah, we're okay,” she announced, doing her best to sound just like her mother. The toss of her head was pure Denise Cavanaugh, even if she didn't have the long, flowing blond hair to carry it off.

Will looked from the woman to the little girl who was almost a complete miniature copy of her. He was only marginally aware that there was a third person in the cab, an older man who seemed content to let the females do the talking.

”Are you sure?” Will moved closer. He was about to climb up on the step, but the woman set her foot on it first, barring access. ”No b.u.mps or scratches?” His question was addressed to the little girl.

Pleased at the attention, Audra beamed importantly. ”Nope. My mama's a great driver.”

If the woman had been alert, she would have never crossed the dividing line and put them all in danger in the first place. But Will bit back the obvious comment. He wasn't the agitator in his family. That dubious honor had always belonged to his sister, Morgan.

”She'd have to be,” he agreed solemnly, ”to handle this rig.”

Audra wiggled further forward, warming to the stranger like a match struck against a rough surface. And far too quickly for Denise's liking.

”I'm Audra Cavanaugh.” She put her hand out the way she'd seen grown-ups do.

Amused, Will reached in over the woman to take the little girl's hand. He noted that the woman remained rigid and partially in his way, as if she intended for her body to act as a buffer between Audra and him.

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