Caro Carson - How To Train A Cowboy

If it weren’t for that, she’d really be enjoying this.

Chapter Four

The creek was low at this time of year, so Emily drove Graham’s SUV through it easily enough. From there, it was just a short distance to the paved road, a two-lane highway that ran from the outskirts of Austin through hundreds of miles of cattle country. Emily headed west, away from the bar, away from Austin. There were no streetlights to cut through the black night, so the lights of another emergency vehicle were bright in the rearview mirror, although the red and blue flashes were at least a mile behind them. She watched in the mirror as the lights dipped below the horizon, adding to the distant glow of the police cars surrounding the bar.

She whistled low. “Police are still showing up. Do you think there was a shootout? Could you see what was—”

“No.”

His answer stopped her short. There was an awkward moment of silence while she wondered why he was so curt.

“We would have heard it if shots were fired,” he said.

“That’s good. I hate to think of anyone in uniform getting shot in the line of duty.”

Graham was silent.

Emily didn’t mind. “This is a Thursday night that’ll be talked about for a while around here. I’ve never seen that many patrol cars out here. We’re not usually this violent out in the country.”

“I can believe that. It’s empty out here. It’s as dark as...”

She stole a peek at him when his sentence trailed off into nothing. There was no trace of a sexy smile, no smart-aleck grin, either. He was in perfect profile, the lines of his forehead, nose, jaw all highlighted by the glow of the dashboard lights. He might as well have been carved from marble for all the expression his face didn’t show.

“As dark as what?” she asked.

“As anywhere I’ve ever been,” he finished flatly.

Emily looked out the windshield at the passing white dashes of the endless center line. She supposed being expressionless wasn’t the worst thing he could be. He could look impatient or irritated with the fact that he was stuck with her when he’d been ready to drop her at her truck and leave. Instead, he just looked stoic. Stoically surviving this additional time with her.

She felt just as bad as she had in the parking lot. She’d tried to leave him when he’d started saying I’m sorry. It wasn’t her fault he’d thrown her into his SUV when the cops had started ducking for cover.

She slowed the SUV and made a U-turn in the middle of the empty road. Once they were facing the direction of the bar, she pulled a good car’s length off the road and put the vehicle into park. She left the lights on, so other cars would see them on the shoulder, if another car was actually on this rural road. He didn’t ask her what she was doing.

She explained, anyway. “We can see the glow of the sheriff’s lights from behind that little rise in the road. When the red and blue cut off, we’ll know the coast is clear.”

And you can take me back to my pickup and get rid of me at the first possible moment.

“All right.” He opened his glove box and took out a cell phone, checked the screen, then tossed it to the center console.

Of course. He probably had someone to check in with, someone from the place he’d just left or the place he was going to. He couldn’t make a call with her sitting right here, staring at him and listening to every word. She’d never felt like such a burden before.

She hated it. She pretended she didn’t and let go of the steering wheel. “You’ve got a real nice ride here. It was fun to drive, considering the circumstances. But, you know, that whole little episode was pretty intense. Think I’ll walk it off a bit while we wait.”

“Emily.”

Jeez, he said her name like her mother would, Emily said in a tone that meant be sensible.

“No bullet is going to come over that rise and get me.” She unfastened her seat belt.

“You’ll freeze.”

“No, I won’t. I’m just going to stretch my legs.” She opened the door.

“Emily—”

She dropped down the foot to the gravel shoulder of the road and shut her door. The emergency lights flashed on the horizon. The air temperature hadn’t fallen any further. This was as cold as it was going to get tonight. Not too bad—if she’d had her jacket. She started walking and swung her arms, too. It did feel good to shake off some of the tension.

She avoided the bright headlights and walked around the back of the vehicle to the other side. Graham’s door opened and the interior lights came on, highlighting the rounded bulk of his shoulder muscles under that navy shirt. He stepped out and slammed the door shut. In the sudden shadows, he handed her a coat.

Oh, Tarzan. He was still taking care of her when he’d rather be free of her.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.” She held the coat in one hand.

He leaned his back against the door and crossed his ankles, apparently prepared to relax out in the cold air. “You might as well put it on, if you’re going to walk around while we wait.”

“But now you’ll be the one freezing without it.” Although the headlights were pointed away from them, they still illuminated her little piece of the night enough that she could see her breath as a mist in the cold.

He shrugged in the shadows. “I’ll get back in the SUV if I can’t take it. If you feel the need to walk, you wear it.”

She swirled his coat around her shoulders like a cape, feeling a little bit sheepish. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t need to walk anywhere, for any reason. “I thought—I thought you might want some privacy to make a call.”

“There’s no cell reception out here.”

“Oh. Right.” That must have been why he’d tossed his cell phone, not because he couldn’t make a call in her presence. To walk or not walk—which would make her look less dumb?

He tucked his hands into his front pockets. “Are you scared of me?”

With his face in shadows, she paid more attention to his tone of voice. He sounded concerned, actually concerned about her, Emily, the girl that the boys didn’t always like because they couldn’t beat her in a roping contest. A man who was concerned about her—it tugged at her heart. It made her weak in the knees. She was scared by how hard she wanted something she hadn’t thought she needed in her life. She didn’t need it; she just liked it. Loved it.

“When the police drew their weapons, I pushed you into my SUV pretty abruptly,” he said. “Maybe I scared you. I didn’t mean to. If the police needed to take cover, then we did, too.”

“I’m not scared of you.” That was sort of a lie, but she wasn’t scared of him the way he meant. She kept her chin up and pretended her heart wasn’t pounding just because he was talking to her with concern in his voice.

“I can imagine a woman might feel uneasy being out in the middle of nowhere with a stranger. I promise you, you’re safe.”

His hands were still tucked in his front pockets as he leaned against the door. He was being as physically non-threatening as he could be, she realized, putting himself in her shoes and trying to imagine what she might be afraid of. Just—jeez. What a good man. Who knew a man like that could swoop in to her local bar from out of nowhere?

He was watching her. “I’d never push anything farther than a woman wanted to take it.”

“Even though you were a handsy prom date?”

A beat of silence. “Even then, I could take no for an answer.”

“Because your mama taught you better.”

“Some things you don’t have to be taught. Of course I wouldn’t hurt a woman I wanted to...touch.” The slightest smile softened his features, but then he slayed her with a casual wink. “I just can’t imagine it would be any fun if she wasn’t having any fun.”