“Sounds like a hoot to me,” Jackson said.
“As an eight-year-old little girl, believe me it was not.” I shook my head, trying to shake away the thoughts that arose about Frank’s abandonment. “Now, where is this steak house that we’re headed toward?”
“On the other side of El Paso, not far from the Mexican border,” he answered. “Are you hungry? We could always stop at some place before that.”
“No, I’m good. A steak sounds great.”
He was almost too good to be true. He didn’t make me feel awkward about sleeping in his house. He helped Grady load up boxes. And he was concerned about me. Something had to be wrong with him, and makeup sex or not, I intended to be cautious.
What about that kiss?my inner voice asked.
“Too hot for words,” I whispered before I realized I was talking out loud.
“What was that?” Jackson asked.
“I was muttering to myself,” I answered. “Like you said earlier, I’ve spent a lot of time alone. Sometimes I forget to keep my thoughts in my head.”
“I do the same, and I’ve been around family of one kind or another my whole life.”
The two tall glasses of sweet tea I had drunk before he arrived were making me wiggle in my seat. I could surely sympathize with the folkswho got off the bus and did a fast trot all the way to the restroom. I saw a sign advertising a gift store and café just up ahead. It pained me and my dignity to ask him to stop so I could use the restroom, but it was either swallow my pride or arrive at a nice steak house with wet spots on my denim skirt.
He braked and turned right into the parking lot of a conglomeration of buildings. “This is the last stop before we get to El Paso, and I need to find a restroom.”
“Have you been here before?” I unbuckled my seat belt before he even turned off the engine.
“Nope, I always stop at the Tumbleweed,” he answered, got out of the truck, and opened the door for me.
According to the signs, one side of the long, low-slung building in front of us was May’s Café. The other was a gift shop. I’d been in enough convenience stores to figure out that in cases like this, the café was probably built first. Therefore the bathrooms were most likely in that part of the place.
Jackson laced his fingers with mine and headed for the first entrance. The sign on the window said that they were open from eight a.m. to five p.m. He pushed the door, and it opened. I almost made the sign of the cross and sent up a prayer of thanks that they weren’t closed.
“We are closing in five minutes,” the lady behind the register said.
“We just need to make a fast trip through the bathrooms,” I told her and headed across the room.
I hadn’t ever been in a store or café that was so crowded—not with people, but with stuff everywhere. There wasn’t a square inch of empty space on the walls or on the countertop. I would have loved to come back some afternoon and get a better look at everything, but Scarlett would have had a heart attack thinking about dusting all the merchandise.
Jackson was sitting at a booth when I came out of the ladies’ room. “Ready?”
I nodded and smiled at the lady. “Thank you. I’ll come back another time when you are open.”
“Where y’all from?” she asked.
“I live at the Tumbleweed,” I answered.
“Over near Dell City,” Jackson said.
“You must be the new help over at the Tumbleweed. I heard there was a new woman over there.” She followed us to the door. “Come back and see us another time. Like the sign out there says, we make the world’s best burger.”
“Will do.” I waved over my shoulder as we left.
“I doubt very seriously that their burgers are any better than Rosie’s,” Jackson said on the way across the lot to the truck.
“I agree, but it might be fun to drive back over here and check out the competition. After all, this place and the Tumbleweed are pretty much the only stops for a long time after leaving El Paso.”
“Consider it a date for another time,” Jackson said.
The scenery along the hour-long drive from Cornudas to El Paso changed very little. With snow piled up on either side of us, it still felt like something out of a paranormal movie.
