CHAPTER TWELVE
The ride to Grady’s Trucking Company was seemed icy. The only time a word was spoken was when Stuart was answering a business phone call. One time a lady called him, but he took that call off of Bluetooth and put his cellphone to his ear. He mostly listened during that phone call.
But it only made Tabby feel worse. She felt like she was doing too much. Not that it was all her fault. Most of it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t run into that girl. She didn’t start that fight. She didn’t arrest herself and have her own car towed.
But she still felt as if she was intruding on the life of this stranger when he’d already done more than anybody could have ever asked him to do. But it was a fact: She needed his help. She hated feeling so powerless, but she needed him.
Stuart could sense how terrible she felt about asking him to do her another favor. He could tell she was an independent woman who didn’t like to be beholden to anybody. Which was admirable. When he was a poor kid in Larkin himself, he was that way too. This was no picnic for her either.
That was why he decided to jumpstart a conversation. “How long have you lived around here?” he asked her as they drove to Grady’s.
She was so surprised that he said a word to her that she at first thought he was still on the phone. Then she looked and realized he was talking to her. “Oh! All my life.”
“Love it?”
That wasn’t a question that made sense to her. “It’s my home.”
He glanced at her. It was his home, too, but he hated it. “Ever thought about leaving home?”
“Sometimes I have. But people are so evil in this world nowadays that I just as soon stay put.”
“The devil you know?”
She smiled and nodded. “Right.” Then she looked at him. “You said you were born here too?”
“I was born and raised here, yes. I left thirty years ago.” Before she was probably born, he reminded himself. “When I was sixteen.”
Tabby tried to figure out his age in her head. Thirty plus ten was forty, plus six was forty-six. He was forty-six? In some ways, she thought, he looked every bit of his age. In other ways, he looked younger than his age.
Stuart suspected that she was counting up the years in her head, which amused him. “How old are you?” he asked her.
“Twenty-seven.”
“Ah. I thought even younger than that. You look good for twenty-seven.”
“You look good for forty-six,” she said to him, and he smiled. His suspicion was confirmed.
She realized her error, and smiled too. “I was good at math in school, and that’s why I guessed your age right away,” she said, and they both laughed. She realized, once again, how much she truly enjoyed his company.
“Turn right at that corner,” she said.
“You seem to know every inch of this town.”
“I should. I’ve been a rideshare driver for four years.”
“Two years? Were you a gig worker while you were working at Argyles?”
“No, I didn’t start gig work until my hours were reduced to next to nothing.”
“And you’ve been at it for two years. You must love it,” he said as he turned right.
“It wasn’t supposed to last this long. I was applying for all kinds of better jobs. But the recession hit and all the jobs dried up. People were holding onto what they had. I figured I’d better do the same for now. I never figured for now would last this long.”
It was a typical small-town story. They find a halfway decent job and then get afraid to let it go even though they knew it was a piece of job to begin with. But in small-town America, a little piece of something was better than a whole lot of nothing. That was why they stayed.
That was why Stuart got out.
“Here it is,” Tabby said as she pointed for him to turn into Grady’s tow yard. Which looked more like a junkyard to Stuart.
But that sinking feeling came over Tabby again. She was about to be on her own in this world again. She looked over at him. “Thanks for the ride, Stuart.”
He wanted to make sure she fully understood. Especially in light of the fact that she told him she was a rideshare driver. “You do understand that your vehicle was most likely totaled in that accident and therefore inoperable?”
“I saw how extensive the damage was to my front end, but I didn’t figure it was totaled.”
“That engine was crushed. I’m sure your insurance company is going to total it out.”
He could see her processing the information. Not with panic. She seemed to Stuart to be the kind of girl who expected bumps in the road at every turn in her life. She processed the info with a kind of quiet oh well. With a dignified what the hell.
Then she mustered enough willpower to smile. “Thanks again for the lift,” she said, and was about to get out.
“Do you have full coverage on your vehicle?” he asked her.
She turned and looked at him as if he was insane.
“Full coverage? The bluebook value on my car is something like 950. If anything happens, the insurance company is only obligated to pay out in total nothing higher than the bluebook value. But yet they wanted to charge me over a hundred dollars a month for full coverage on that car. Which meant, before the end of the year, I would be paying them more than they would pay me if something happened.”
Stuart stared at her. She was sharp as a whip. Which was rare in his experience. Most of the young twentysomethings he’d been around were ambitious airheads looking for a quick come up. But not this girl.
“Anyway, thanks again,” she said, and got out of the car.
But before she could close his door, he was at it again: “Do you want me to drop you off after you get your stuff out of the car?”
She leaned down and looked at him. She definitely wanted him to drop her off.
But by the look on his face, she could tell he didn’t want to drop her off.
He wanted to go on about his business. And rightfully so.
“No, I’m good. I’ll get one of the tow truck drivers to give me a lift back into town.
I’m sure they’re gonna have tows to pick up soon enough. ”
“Okay,” said Stuart. “Take care of yourself.”
She smiled, although he could see a sadness in her eyes. “You too,” she said, closed his door, and began heading toward the entrance into the small, standalone office.
He looked at the few men that were hanging around in the tow yard, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and waiting for a call out.
He saw how they were watching her smooth legs coming down from her tight shorts, and they were checking out the rest of her slender body as if she was a piece of fresh meat for them to chew on.
They even elbowed each other when she came into their view.
Then he looked at Tabitha. She was clueless.
She was a smart young lady, but in Stuart’s view she was a virgin to the ways of the world.
She was easily susceptible to the wiles of men, he thought as his phone began ringing.
When he looked at his infotainment screen, he saw that it was the realtor phoning.
She was undoubtedly already at the house and wondering where was he.
He pressed the button. “Hey.”
“Are you still coming?”
“I am, yes.” He continued to stare at Tabby.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I have another showing in an hour. Are you on your way?”
He looked at those men again as they continued to gawk at Tabby. “I should be there shortly,” he responded to the realtor and ended the call as Tabby went into the office.
It was so not him to give a damn about hardly anyone, let alone some young one he’d just met.
But he’d already gone out of his way for her twice in a row: He bribed the chief to get her out of jail.
He drove her to this junkyard on the edge of town.
He might as well make it a trifecta and take her home.
Because there was no way in hell he was going to just drive away and let her get in a truck with one of those slick roughnecks who could do Lord-knows-what to that young lady.
And she was too small to fight off any one of them. There was no way.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for her to get her items and head out.
But when she stepped out of that office and began heading toward those guys, he blew his horn.
When Tabby turned to the sound of that horn, and saw that white Porsche still parked there, her heart leaped with joy.
She practically ran to his car. She couldn’t hide her smile.
He didn’t press down the front passenger window, so she opened the car door. “You’re still here?”
“Get in.”
This time she didn’t hesitate. He could have left. She gave him an out. But he stuck around. That said a lot to her. Like maybe he enjoyed her company just as much as she enjoyed his.
Or, maybe he had a hidden agenda she wasn’t savvy enough to realize.
Although she doubted that was true. He really didn’t want to drive her to this tow yard.
And he didn’t have to stick around. She’d err on the side of him being a decent guy who saw an injustice and helped a sister out rather than him being some master manipulating creep. She quickly got in.
And Stuart just as quickly took off.
But when he looked at her, he realized she only had a phone in her hand and her registration and insurance papers. “That’s it?”
“I had some money in the glove compartment,” she said, “but the guy in the office claimed they didn’t find any money.”
Stuart was surprised. “They stole your money?”
“They had to steal it because I know what I had in my car.”
“I’ll turn around,” Stuart said, ready to make a U-turn, but Tabby stopped him.
“It’s not worth it,” she said. “It was only twelve dollars.”
Stuart looked at her. “You said your whole life was in that car. Are you telling me that twelve dollars and a phone represent the whole of your life?”
“I’m a rideshare driver. Yes, my phone is my whole life. It’s how I get my gigs.”
“You can’t get too many without a ride.”
A frown of concern appeared on her pretty face. She knew it too.
“What’s your gameplan?”
“I’m gonna go home and take a shower first and foremost,” she said. “Get this jail off of me.”
“And then?”
There was no real and then. Just a maybe.
“My cousin Stace is the assistant manager over at the Waffle House. She used to be an assistant manager over at Argyles before they laid her off. She’ll probably throw me some waitressing work until I can .
. .” She couldn’t even think of what her next move would be after that.
Which was a shame to Stuart. A kind young lady like her shouldn’t have to work so hard.
But his motto had always been to let people figure that shit out for themselves.
Just like he had to figure it out once upon a time.
You get involved to your own detriment. And he never did anything to his own detriment.
He was going to take her home and get on with his own situationships.
Because he had many to resolve. “Where do you live?”
“On Beaver Avenue,” Tabby said. “But if it’s out of your way, you can just drop me off downtown. It’s in walking distance from there. You know Beaver Avenue?”
“I know it well,” he said. “I used to live a couple blocks from there, on Hayden.”
She looked at him. “Really? The only thing over there is the Hayden Street Trailer Park.”
He nodded. “That’s where I was born and raised.”
“Wow. Really? You’ve come a long way from there to a Porsche.”
Stuart smiled, but didn’t respond to that. “Where on Beaver do you live?”
“I own a small, blue house right near the elementary school.”
Stuart looked at her. “You own your own home?”
“I sure do. Why? You look surprised.”
“I don’t know why I assumed you were a renter.”
“Nope. My cousin Stacy let me stay with her and her husband a couple years after I got out of high school, when all my siblings left Ohio.”
“What about your parents?”
“My mother died when I was little. My father is a jazzman. He left one day and didn’t come back. I don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”
“And you don’t care, right?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said with a smile, which actually pleased Stuart. He wouldn’t have given a damn had his father pulled a disappearing act on him. But she wasn’t him and he was hoping she’d keep it that way.
“But while Stace let me stay with her,” Tabby continued, “I took full advantage of that free rent. I got my credit together. Saved every dime I could to get me a downpayment together. Made sure I stayed on that same job. And then I got a loan for my house when I was twenty-three. It was a fixer-upper. It needed a lot of love. But the bones were good. So I bought it and fixed it up. It’s small.
It’s only two bedrooms and one bath. But it’s more than enough room for me. ”
“That’s excellent, Tabby,” Stuart said heartfelt as he glanced at her. “I’m proud of you.”
He didn’t mean to go that far. It almost sounded condescending, which was not his intention at all. But once it was out there, he didn’t try to take it back. He was a proud of her! That was a fact. She was smart enough to make the best of her challenging situation. He respected that.
Tabby couldn’t recall the last time somebody actually gave her a compliment. Or said they were proud of her. That just didn’t happen in her life. It felt weird to hear it, especially coming from somebody she didn’t know like that. But it felt wonderful too. “Thanks,” she said.
They glanced at each other, as both of them felt as if there was some kind of connection there. But then they looked away. They were going their separate ways soon. What kind of connection could they really have?
But as they looked away, Stuart glanced down the length of her body again.
Something he was doing far too much of he realized.
But he couldn’t help himself. Whenever he looked into her emotional eyes, he felt something deep inside of him.
And that something was beginning to manifest itself, not just on an emotional level, but on a physical one as well.
They rode the rest of the way in complete silence until they were turning onto Beaver Avenue and Tabby directed him to her small, two-bedroom bungalow of a cute little home.