4. Harlan
Chapter 4
Harlan
T he brunette with narrowed eyes the color of a lightning strike confirms my brothers’ earlier assessment.
She is in fact a looker. As if I didn’t already notice that myself.
A pissed-off looker if the stare she’s aiming my way is indication.
But under the irritation, I see fear. Whether that fear is from waking up in the hospital after the accident or having me and my brothers camped out in her room remains to be seen.
“Sure,” she says. Though the tone tells me that she’d rather be anywhere else than answering my questions.
The baby in her arms is disarming. Where she holds her gently and lets the infant play with her hair, the nervous anxiety radiating off her tells a different story.
“Can you tell me what happened?” I ask.
My brothers are listening keenly. Hell, they’re just as invested in the tale as I am since they’ve all been here almost all day hanging out and helping with the baby. Only two of them were allowed into the ER room when she was there. But once they moved Maisie to a regular room, they converged — taking turns helping watch the baby and hanging out until her mama woke up.
“A deer ran across the road. I tried to swerve to avoid it, but ended up going into the ditch with the camper. I think the front end hit the embankment and that’s why I tipped.”
Short. Sweet and to the point. The area is known for animal crossings and there are a couple of accidents out there each year because of them, so the story makes sense.
“Were you driving tired?” I ask.
“It was one o’clock in the morning, what do you think?” she snarks.
I’ll take that as a yes then.
“ Were you drinking?”
“No.” Her jaw clenches at the question.
Even if she consented to a blood alcohol test now, it’s been too long since the accident. She didn’t smell like alcohol and the only open container we found in the rig was her soda.
“Where were you headed?”
Her plump lips roll into a thin line, and she takes a second before responding. “Shelley. I have a rental booked there.”
“Your rig has Texas plates on it. Is that where you’re from?”
Her eyes cut away before she nods.
“You here on vacation?”
“Yeah. Vacation,” she confirms, but the hairs on the back of my neck raise.
She’s lying. I don’t know how I know, but I trust my gut. It’s saved my ass enough times.
“You own the mechanic shop?” she asks Jedd .
He nods. “I do.”
“How long is it going to take to do the repairs?” she asks.
Jedd cuts a look in my direction, and I nod for him to explain.
“The front end is damaged. I haven’t been able to get back to the shop long enough to take a good look at it, but you’re leaking oil, radiator fluid and transmission fluid. The side that landed on the embankment is all bent and dented to shit, and that’s not counting the two blown tires.”
Maisie sucks in a deep breath and blows it out. “Okay. But you can fix it right?”
Instead of nodding, and assuring her that he can fix it, he shrugs. “Not sure yet. Gotta look at it and then figure out what parts to buy, but I can try.”
“How long is that going to take?” she asks, her breath hitching.
Why is she in such a hurry? If she is in fact on vacation, what’s the rush?
He shrugs again. “No idea. I’ll know more when I figure all of what’s wrong with it.”
She nods. “Okay. I’d appreciate it if you could let me know as soon as possible.” She glances to where her purse is. “Is my phone in there?”
Rhett steps forward, and minding his manners, doesn’t open the thing, just passes it to her. She wraps her left arm around Audra and tries to undo the clasp with one hand.
“Here. Let me take her for you.” I hold out my arms.
Instead of letting her daughter go, she hands me her purse. “Thank you.”
I unclasp it and pull the sides apart so that she can reach in and retrieve her phone.
“Do you guys have somewhere in town that we can stay until my camper is repaired?” she asks while her gaze is locked on the device in her hand.
I nod. “There’s a bed and breakfast in the square. I’ll call over and see if Holly has a room.” I stand and start toward the door.
After stepping into the hallway, the busy sounds of the hospital get louder. I pull my own phone out of my pocket and hit the contact for the bed and breakfast.
“Sleepy Mountain Bed and Breakfast, this is Holly, how can I help you?”
“Hey, Hols. It’s Harlan.”
“Hi, Harlan. How’s it going?”
Holly took over the bed and breakfast when her parents retired, and she’s the only hospitality joint outside of the big resort. To say business for her is brisk is an understatement.
“It’s going. Listen, do you have a single room for a woman and a baby?”
“Oh jeez. Har, I’m sorry. I just checked in the last guests. I’m booked solid for the next four weeks. What’s going on?”
“The woman ran off the highway late last night on her way to Shelley, she’s here in the hospital, but her rig is fucked, and she doesn’t have anywhere to stay.”
“Well shit. Let me call up to the resort and see if they have anything — but don’t get your hopes up, they referred the guests I just checked in over to me.”
Fuck. “Thanks. I’d appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.” She disconnects the call, and I run a hand through my hair.
I step back into the hospital room. “Holly doesn’t have a room, but she’s checking with the resort.”
As if her ears were burning, my phone vibrates in my hand with a text from Holly. I glance at the screen and stifle a curse.
“The bed and breakfast doesn’t have a room, neither does the resort. There’s a big country music festival in town for the next couple of days. So everything is booked.”
Maisie’s silver eyes flash to me, and I see the dismay in them seconds before she covers the reaction.
“Are there any other hotels close?” she asks.
“Not for about an hour outside of town. And they’re probably booked too,” I say, “Is there anyone you can call?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “No.”
Well fuck.
There’s a brief knock at the door behind me and then it opens admitting Dr. Aldric. “You ready to get out of here?”
Maisie looks at the doctor for a second and then laughs mirthlessly. “Sure.”
My brothers and I step out of the hospital room while the doctor checks Maisie over one last time and gets her discharge paperwork together. Jedd, Rhett, and Finch head for the vending machines while Boone hangs back with me. He works at the local ranger station as a park ranger, and had the day off.
My other brothers are just nosy fucks and came down after Jedd blabbed to them.
“What’s she gonna do?” Boone asks.
I shake my head. “I have no idea.”
“Well, we can’t just let her and Audra leave here with no car and nowhere to go.”
“I know.” My head throbs with a dull headache from the lack of sleep the night before. I spent most of the day in and out of the station and the hospital waiting for Maisie to wake up.
Boone tugs on his ear. “You have that apartment over your garage.”
Fuck. No. Fuuuck.
“Yeah. I do.” The one bedroom and bathroom was set up as a mother-in-law suite, or guest quarters when I bought the place. I’ve been toying with the idea of turning the space into a home gym over the last year, but never pulled the trigger on it, or had the time to figure out if it would actually work.
“Is it still set up as a guest suite?”
I nod again, feeling trapped.
“Do you think she could stay with you for a few days until something at the bed and breakfast opens up?”
“Hollie’s booked for weeks, the resort will open before anything here in town does.”
“Semantics, Harlan. She was just in a car accident. She has a six-month-old daughter and nowhere to go,” Boone points out.
I shoot my baby brother a sharp glare. “I know.”
“I’d let her stay with Jem and I, but we don’t have the room in the camper.”
Boone and Jem bought a piece of land just outside of town right after their wedding and are in the process of building their own house, living in a camper on the property until it’s done later this summer.
“Fuck. Fine.”
Do I want a woman that I know practically nothing about living above my garage, even if it’s only for a few days? No. Not at all.
But my mama would roll over in her grave if I didn’t offer to help when, out of all of my brothers, I’m the one with the most room.
Jedd lives above his shop in a tiny apartment. Duke is in a house, but it’s the size of a postage stamp, and Rhett’s house is a disaster of a fixer upper. Finch’s house has chemicals everywhere for his job. None of their places are fit for women, or babies.
“Fine. She can stay with me, but the second that a room opens up at the resort, or her camper is road-worthy, she’s out,” I say.
Boone shoots me a triumphant grin.
I like my space. I like my solitude. I’m a thirty-eight-year-old man, and I haven’t lived with anyone in a long time.
But it looks like that’s about to change.