“Oh. Then I’d just ride shotgun. Are there many female drivers?”
“There are some.” He wouldn’t tell her, but he had two very reliable female drivers working for him.
He pulled into Joe’s Truck Stop. There were other tractor-trailers scattered about in the parking lot, so he parked his rig far from the others for privacy. “Usually, when a trucker parks awayfrom the others, other truckers assume he’s doing it for a reason. They respect his privacy, and won’t venture close.”
She lifted a brow. “Oh, what privacy would a trucker need?”
He could lie and come up with a pretty good, plausible reason, but she was twenty-one, so he had no problem educating her about certain aspects of a trucker’s life. “You recall when I found you as a stowaway in my trailer and asked if you were a lot-lizard?”
She nodded. “You never did tell me what a lot-lizard was.”
“At the time, I wasn’t sure of your age and didn’t want to say anything that might be too crude for your delicate ears. Now that I know you’re an adult, I have no problem telling you.”
He could tell that she was hanging on to his every word. “And, what is it?” she asked.
He met her gaze. “A lot-lizard is a woman or a man who hangs around truck stops for the truckers’ pleasure.”
“The truckers’ pleasure?”
“They offer sexual favors. It gets lonely on the road. A lot-lizard uses that loneliness to make a buck. Whatever a trucker needs -fondling, intercourse, oral sex -a lot-lizard will offer it.”
She nodded quickly. “I see.”
He smiled and could clearly see the blush spreading across her features. “I’ll be back in a minute with our food.”
“Thank you, Drew. But I won’t be eating anything.”
**
Eden ignored Drew’s grin when she ate the last piece of her chicken. In deference to her, he had gotten it baked instead of fried. Lord knew, she’d tried to ignore the food, but when he returned, the aroma alone had made her mouth water, and when he had opened the container, she’d been a goner. Baked chicken, perlo rice with bits of andouille sausage, lima beans, mac andcheese, and potato salad. And the best-tasting corn bread she had ever eaten.
He had brought an extra plate, and at first, she had spooned just enough off his to sample the taste. That had been a mistake. Everything was way too delicious. Her parents’ cook, Fanny, was good at catering to Eden’s parents’ taste, which leaned more toward the uppity Bostonian palate. Every dinner meal was served with Boston baked beans, regardless of whether the main course was seafood, chicken, beef, or pork. Dinner would always include a vegetable and a dessert. That was it. She truly enjoyed Fanny’s lobster rolls and shrimp scampi and thought Fanny could have made more of them. But her parents preferred beef. They couldn’t get enough steak.
Drew hadn’t lied when he’d insinuated there would be no leftovers. There weren’t. How he managed to put away so much food was beyond her. Although she had eaten some, she had in no way consumed nearly as much food as he had. And he wasn’t done yet. She watched as he opened a box containing banana pudding. He offered her some, but she declined. She would probably gain a good five pounds just staring at it too long. It looked that rich.
“How far will you drive tonight?” she asked him.
“Due to federal regulations, I can only drive an additional five hours. That’s all I need to make it to Flagstaff. We’ll bypass Phoenix and once we get to Flagstaff, we’ll get to I-40, which will take us to Tennessee.”
He hadn’t said anything about sleeping arrangements once they got to Flagstaff, but she was certain they would have separate rooms. Still, she would understand if he didn’t want to fork out additional money for her to have a separate room, and if that was the case, she could certainly sleep out in the truck.
“I will be back after disposing of the trash, and then we will be on our way,” he said, gathering up everything to take over to adumpster. When he returned, he said, “There’s a rest stop about twenty minutes from here where we can use the restrooms. Joe’s facilities are clean, but they’re crowded, and you might draw attention.”
Less than an hour later, they were finally on the road, heading toward Flagstaff. It had gotten dark, but because she had taken a nap earlier, she wasn’t tired or sleepy. She watched him driving for a while, seeing how easily he maneuvered the big truck in and out of traffic as they moved out of the city.
“I meant to ask you something earlier, but it slipped my mind,” she said when she thought the inside of the cab had gotten way too quiet.
“What is it?”
“It’s about something I overheard Fred say. Is it true that you can’t visit your family in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the holidays?”
He glanced over at her, and she knew he had every right to tell her that she had no business eavesdropping on their conversation. Only, she hadn’t been eavesdropping…not really. There was no way she couldn’t hear what they had said when they had been standing by the truck’s wide open back door. She had been a captive audience.
“It’s true,” he finally said.
Maybe she didn’t have the right to ask, but decided to do so anyway. “Why?”
CHAPTER 6
