Chapter 18
Lily looked out the window at the slowly darkening sky, then back down at the charcoal drawing she was working on, frustrated. Try as she might, she just couldn’t seem to capture the shadows falling on the lake outside.
In the days following her meeting with Sherry, Lily had found it impossible to retrieve the peace she’d discovered that first day walking on the lake. The older woman’s words reverberated in her mind, making it hard to think of anything else, so she’d returned to a pastime she hadn’t indulged in for years. As early as she could remember, she’d always found sketching her surroundings to be a surefire way to relax and ease her mind, and in college, she had discovered charcoal. There was something about the feel of a charcoal pencil in her hand that put her at ease, and she loved the black-and-white texture of the drawings they produced. Although her supplies were always packed and at the ready, she hadn’t actually touched them in at least five years.
Frowning as she looked at her drawing, she realized just how out of practice she was. It had taken her years to hone her skills, even managing to sell some of her drawings, but now, as she looked at the smudged paper, she felt like an amateur.
Discouraged, she tossed the worn-out pencil into her box and sat back with a disgusted huff.
“Don’t give up. I like it.”
At the sound of the soft voice behind her, she jumped. “How did you get in here?” Lily demanded, holding her pounding heart and staring angrily at Dakota, who was seated peacefully on a lounger behind her in the sunroom she’d chosen for sketching.
“Through the unlocked front door,” he said. “I knocked, but when I didn’t get an answer, I figured I’d best come in and make sure you were all right.”
Lily frowned. She’d had her earbuds in for the first hour of drawing, but as she’d grown more discouraged, she’d yanked them out to concentrate. Surely, he hadn’t come in that long ago. “Just how long have you been sitting there?”
Dakota shrugged. “I don’t know. A while, I guess. I like watching you draw.”
Shaking her head in aggravation, Lily stood up, her sore back protesting after sitting in the same position for so long. “You should have said something,” she reprimanded him. “Why are you here anyway? Are Ray or Camellia here as well?”
She’d already packed and decided she would leave tonight for Sacramento. The light snow currently falling was supposed to get heavy later, and Camellia had suggested she drive out this afternoon to avoid getting caught in it.
Dakota shook his head. “No, they’re both busy getting things ready for the rodeo. Ray realized he’d forgotten his belt buckle here, and since I was picking up a donation from the next town over, he asked me to stop by and get it for him.”
“Funny. Camellia didn’t say anything when I talked to her earlier. I could have saved you the trip and brought whatever he needed,” she said.
Dakota looked away. “I guess Ray didn’t think of that. But as long as I’m here, why don’t I just drive you to Sacramento in my truck? The snow is getting heavier, and that little sports car of yours might not do so well.”
Lily looked at him suspiciously. There was definitely something he wasn’t telling her. He’d changed the subject too quickly, and she doubted he’d driven all this way for a donation that could have been sent—or just to pick up a belt buckle.
“It’ll be fine. I need my car to get back here anyway,” she said. “I’ll go with you to find that buckle you’re looking for, and then I might as well just head out. I hadn’t really noticed how much more snow was coming down.”
“You’re pretty good,” Dakota said, looking over her shoulder. “I like how you’ve got the trees casting shadows on the lake. Why didn’t you say you were an artist?”
She laughed uncomfortably at the compliment and didn’t really know how to respond to the praise. “Because I’m not an artist. I work in a bookstore, and before that, I was a homemaker and a mother. I only draw for fun.” Lily didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt self-conscious about her art and started to cover it with another piece of paper.
“Don’t!” Dakota put out his hand to stop her. “That’s charcoal, isn’t it? You’ll smudge it if you cover it. I don’t know much about that kind of stuff, but judging from the smudges on your cheeks, I don’t think it’s set yet.”
Lily lifted the paper away from her drawing and looked at it critically. “No, it’s not set yet. I’d need to spray it with a setting spray if I want to preserve it, but I think I’ll just toss this one. It’s not very good.”
Dakota looked at her, shocked. “Don’t do that. You must have been working on it for hours. You can’t just throw it away.”
She stared at the paper absentmindedly, wondering what he saw that she didn’t. “I don’t save most of my drawings,” she said. “Mostly, I draw just for myself. It helps me relax. Although, admittedly, I haven’t done it in quite a few years, and it shows.”
Dakota walked up behind her, held out his hand for the drawing, and then studied it once he had it in front of him. “I like it,” he announced. “If you’re just tossing it anyway, can I have it?”
Her mouth dropped, and her mind went blank. “You want my drawing?” Lily stared at him wide-eyed.
“Yes, I do.”
Completely at a loss for how to respond, Lily just nodded, picked up her setting spray, and lightly coated the drawing. “You’ll need to be careful until it dries, or it can still smudge.”
Dakota carefully took the drawing in his hands, then turned back to her. “It’s going to get dark soon, and the snow is getting heavy. I’ll get what I need for Ray, and you get your things. There’s no sense in both of us driving through the snow separately. Let me just drive you. I’ll see to it that you get back here Sunday after the rodeo. Didn’t I hear your sister was coming anyway?”
Lily looked outside. The snow really was starting to pile up, and it was getting darker by the second. Dakota was right. Violet was either supposed to meet her at Camellia’s house or at the event, and she could ride back with her. She didn’t really fancy driving in this weather anyway.
By the time she and Dakota climbed into his truck, the snow had started coming down heavy and hard. Dakota had spent a few extra minutes putting chains on his tires, and Lily was starting to question whether it was wise for either of them to be driving right now.
“It’ll be fine,” Dakota assured her, but as he climbed into the driver’s seat and started down the road, she wasn’t so sure.
They started off in silence, Dakota concentrating on the road ahead while Lily clutched her seat, white-knuckled.
“What the…?” Dakota let out a string of curse words as he hit his brakes and did his best to keep the truck on the road, trying to avoid hitting the car stopped in the middle of the road right in front of them.
As the truck slid back and forth on the icy road, Lily clutched the handle on top of the door with all her strength. They were heading straight for the stalled vehicle, and she braced herself for the impact, praying with everything she had that the car wasn’t occupied and they weren’t about to kill someone.
At the very last second, Dakota jerked the wheel, and the truck veered violently to the right, landing with a thud in the snowbank.
Almost immediately, Dakota turned to her, his face concerned. “Are you okay? Those darn fools! Who stops their car in the middle of the road during a snowstorm?” he ranted.
Lily touched her forehead where it had slammed against the window when the truck hit the bank, feeling the beginnings of a lump forming. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “Just a little bump.”
He unbuckled his seat belt and leaned over, taking her face in his hands and peering at her forehead in the dark. “You hit hard. I could hear it even over the noise of the truck hitting the bank.” He muttered another unsavory word. “That’s going to leave one heck of a bump. I’m sorry.”
She looked at him, perplexed. He’d just managed to keep them on the road and avoid a car potentially full of people, and he was apologizing?
“I’m fine. You did a great job keeping us safe. You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”
Dakota looked at her strangely for a minute, then turned on his flashers and grabbed a flashlight. “I’d better go see what the damage is and if there are any people in that car. I suppose I’ll have to figure out a way to move it, too. If it stays where it is, someone’s going to hit it and get hurt.”
She watched him climb out and walk to the car, tapping the window with the flashlight and shining it around to check for damage.
A few seconds later, she saw the window open, and a young man stuck his head out to talk to Dakota. Lily breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that Dakota had somehow managed to avoid hitting the car. The people inside would have surely gotten hurt if his heavy 3500 Chevy had slammed into them.
As she watched Dakota gesturing, she frowned. Something was definitely agitating him, and she wondered if she should get out and see what was going on. She knew he didn’t have a lot of patience, but something about his mannerisms told her he wasn’t pleased with the young man.
Just as she was about to get out, she saw Dakota throw up his hands and trudge back to the truck through the snow. He walked around his truck, checked how far they were into the snowbank, and then climbed back into the cab.
“Idiot!” he exclaimed as soon as he got in. “He thinks he’s just going to sit in the middle of the road and wait for AAA to come and bring him gas! The fool is going to get himself and his passenger killed.”
He shifted his truck into four-wheel drive, maneuvered until he broke free of the snow, then pulled in front of the car, getting out and grabbing a tow line without saying anything further. Lily wanted to ask what he had in mind, but he was too agitated for her to muster the courage.
She watched as he dug away at the snow, crawled under the car, and then shouted instructions at the driver. He climbed back into the truck and started to pull the car to the side, gently settling it far enough off the road so it wouldn’t cause any more issues.
“We’re going to have company for a while,” he muttered to her as he exited once more to retrieve his rope and talk to the young couple now climbing out of the car.
Lily watched as a young man and woman quickly exited their car and dashed to the truck, scrambling to get in before the snow covered them.
“It’s freezing out there!” the young woman said, rubbing her arms as she settled in. “I didn’t bring a coat. Could you crank up the heat a little, miss?”
As Lily reached for the control to oblige, Dakota and the young man climbed in at the same time, seemingly in the middle of a disagreement.
“Are you sure my car is going to be safe there? I just bought it, and I don’t want some dumb plow driver taking out the side mirror or something like that.”
Dakota glared at the man through his rearview mirror. “No, I’m not sure your car is going to be safe there,” he growled. “And my guess is there’s about a fifty-fifty chance that by the time you make it back up here, there’s going to be some damage to it. But what I am sure of is that if I had let you two stay where you were, you and your friend wouldn’t survive the next truck that comes barreling down the highway.”
“Oh, you’re being a bit dramatic, don’t you think?” the woman purred. “After all, you saw us.” She’d obviously missed the part where Dakota had had to swerve to miss them and hit a snowbank. “Besides, I’m sure help is coming as we speak. Jimmy wanted to make sure the AAA guy saw us.”
From the look on his face, Lily thought Dakota was going to explode, but instead, he just shook his head and put the truck into gear.
“Wait,” Lily put a hand on his arm and turned to the woman. “Did you leave your coat in the car? I can run and get it for you. You’re going to need it.”
The woman giggled. “No, I didn’t bring one with me. You know how it is with coat checks and all. Jimmy is such a gentleman that he usually just drops me at the door. We’re planning on going to a few places tonight, and I didn’t want to lose it.”
“Fools,” Dakota muttered again, easing the truck onto the road.
“Could you drop us at Harrah’s Lake Hotel and Casino?” the man asked. “That would be fabulous. It’s her birthday, and I promised her a good night. No sense in her sitting around bored while I figure out things with the car.”
“No, I don’t think I’ll be doing that. I’ll drop you off at the first gas station or truck stop, and you and your lady friend can figure things out from there,” Dakota snapped.
The man slapped his hands on his thighs. “Oh, come on, man! You can’t expect Jill to sit around a truck stop. She doesn’t even have a coat. I thought you said you’d give us a lift somewhere safe,” the young man objected.
Dakota glanced in the rearview mirror at the guy, his jaw set and his expression no-nonsense. “I am. The next truck stop is off the road and safe.”
Lily glanced at Dakota and saw his face was tense and dark. Thankfully, the young man must have seen it too because he stopped talking to Dakota, turned his attention to the woman beside him, and complained for the next half-hour about how unfair all of this was and how people just weren’t willing to help anymore.
Dakota, meanwhile, did his best to navigate the slippery roads and keep the heavy truck from sliding off into a ditch or embankment. When Lily finally saw the lights of the truck stop up ahead, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Pulling over in front of the building, he said, without turning around, “Okay, ride’s over. You can both get out here and find someone else to help you now.”
The man looked around at the dark and dingy building. “You can’t just drop us off here, mister. My girlfriend doesn’t have a coat, and that place looks like it hasn’t seen heat in years.”
Dakota just shrugged. “Not my problem. Only a fool leaves the house in this weather without the right clothing, and only a bigger fool drives a car without chains in a snowstorm and runs out of gas. I’ve saved your hides from getting rear-ended on the road or dying of hypothermia. That’s all I intend to do for you.”
“I can’t believe you would do this to us!” the girl shrieked suddenly. “You’re a heartless freak, and I hope you both get run off the road!”