Or, at least, Michael would get a fat head thinking he was always right.
“She lives out in the boonies, too, which means it’s a drive from wherever I’m at,” he told me as he turned down a dirt road. “And it’s a fixer upper, so I’m there every other weekend, it seems like.”
He wasn’t there every other weekend, which I told him.
“You’re not there every other weekend. Because you’ve been with me for a month now, and I’ve never met her, and you spend your weekends with me,” I told him dryly.
He winked at me, and I felt shivers race down my spine.
But then we hit a pot hole causing the truck to dip down low.
And the nausea welled back up my throat.
“Pull over!” I pleaded, hand going to my mouth.
He read the state I was in quickly with a quick scan of his eyes, and pulled over. Not that it was much.
But it was enough.
He stopped the truck quickly, and I had enough time to throw my door open before I lost the lunch that I’d barely eaten.
My head felt like it was a million times too big as I threw up everything I had in there, then started dry heaving.
I guess Michael was worried about me falling out of the truck because his hand went to the waist band of my skirt to hold on while I violently puked.
Head pounding, I lifted up.
Only to come face to face with a cow.
He was on his side of the fence, but still, the surprise of it all had me squeaking in surprise.
“You okay?” Michael asked.
I turned to him, then back to the cow.
“Yeah, I’m okay now. I’ve been nauseous since breakfast,” I told him.
“Stomach bug?” He asked worriedly.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. We have so many sick people come through the hospital every day that it’s possible. But I haven’t a clue. I just hope it goes the hell away.”
Reluctantly, he let my skirt go, and turned back to face the front of the truck.
“Maybe we should take you home,” he said. “It wouldn’t be good to pass whatever you have to Reggie.”
I waved my hand. “I’ll stay in the car. You’re all the way out here, and I’ll be fine as long as you don’t mind.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t mind. Just don’t spread your cooties to me.”
I snorted, and pulled the door closed, tossing a glance at the cow who looked a little bit sad to see me go.
I leaned my head back against the seat, and closed my eyes as Michael started moving the truck back down the road. At a much slower pace this time.
“I won’t spread my cooties if I can help it,” I laughed.
His hand captured mine, and he held it on top of the middle console for another two miles.
Then he pulled into a…yard.
There wasn’t any driveway.
None at all.
And with all the rain we’d been getting over the past two months, her yard resembled more of a lake rather than a yard.
“She drives a jacked up two wheel drive Jeep…” I said unsurprised. “Why would she lift a two wheel drive?”
Michael burst out laughing.
“Exactly!”
He tried carefully, but the moment he pulled into her yard, his tires sank and started to spin.
“Gonna have to put it in already,” he muttered, doing something on the floorboard that I couldn’t see.
I couldn’t see it because the woman that was coming out of the little brown house was beautiful.
I could clearly tell she was Michael’s sister.
She had the same beautiful brown hair, and even from this distance I could see that her eyes were the same translucent blue.
“She looks just like you,” I observed as he pulled a u-ey in her yard and started to back up.
Mud splattered and slammed against the windows, causing me to laugh at the situation.
I’d been mudding before.
Hell, I was raised in East Texas.
If you hadn’t been mudding, that was because you hadn’t lived here long.
But I hadn’t done it in so long that I’d forgotten the way you slipped and slid.
Mud had zero traction.