CH. 3 Drive home

Riggin

 “You have gotta be kidding me,” I groaned as I heard Reagan scream down the hall. A quick glance at the clock let me know I could’ve slept for at least two more hours. Now what do I do? Should I check on her? She made it quite obvious last night that she thought I was the scum of the earth. I still couldn’t believe how someone as beautiful as her could be so rotten inside. Her father was such a good man, even Randle but wow. 

I could hear her footsteps coming down the hall slowly. With each step she took the boards creaked loudly. I peeked out my door, she was a short little thing probably 5’2 I would guess a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet, maybe. Her blonde hair was a mess on top of her head. It was actually quite cute. You could barely see the hem of her shorts under her dark hoodie. She continued to tip-toe towards the door finally giving up and slipping out.  I made a mental note to grease the hinges. Where is she going at this time in the morning? I walked up to the window and chuckled as she took off running down the road. I better go after her though, it’s not safe to run in the dark in these mountains. I slipped on my running shoes as my mind wandered back to the drive home.

I walked up to the hospital valet and handed him my ticket. Reagan was biting her lower lip looking vulnerable. She didn’t notice that I was watching her, I couldn’t help myself, there was something about her that I just couldn’t figure out. Her face lit up momentarily when my truck came into view, the look was gone just as quickly as it came. I opened the passenger side door and the automatic step came out for her, I leaned in grabbing her arm to help her into the truck, ”You like?” I asked giving her my best smile. She climbed into the truck never once looking at me, ”Its okay I guess. The typical cowboy thing to do.” venom dripped off every word as she spoke. I shook my head and shut the door gently. After putting her bag on the back seat I jumped in the truck threw it in gear and started to back out,

”WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Reagan screamed. Her eyes were wide with fear as all the color drained from her face. I slammed on the brakes checking to see if there was a car or person I almost hit but the road was clear. I took a deep breath trying to calm my nerves, ”Your seatbelt, you didn’t put your seatbelt on”, she snapped at me. I grabbed my seat belt buckling it in without saying a word. She started to bite her lip again as she twiddled her thumbs around each other. “Let's try this again,” I said as I started to pull out and exit the hospital parking lot. 

You could cut the tension in the truck with a knife, ”I’m sorry for yelling.” she whispered staring out the window. ”Thank you?” I said unsure of what to do. She smiled at me and was about to say something when her phone startled her. Looking at her phone she rolled her eyes and took a deep breath answering, ”Reagan” I could hear a male voice on the other end. ”Steven, we already discussed this, I don’t see any reason to keep going over it.” her hands moved in every direction possible, ”Listen Steven I’m just leaving the hospital, I’m tired and not in the mood right now!”  Reagan closed her eyes and took a deep breath, ”I…. don’t….. know,” she said slowly, ”I don’t want to go into details” She looked irritated. “WHY!” was yelled from the other end with some other stuff I couldn’t make out, ”I’m done with this conversation Steven, until you decide to man up and have an adult conversation don’t bother calling me. I am tired and I am going home now!” before Steven had a chance to respond Reagan hung up, pressed a button and put the phone back to her. 

She started biting her lip again, I couldn’t help but laugh. She jumped at the sound, ”Ashley Mr. Edwards is going to be contacting you, Do Not tell him where I am.” I was feeling uncomfortable listening to her conversation but I didn’t really have a choice, she didn’t even act like it bothered her. “No, not the usual I’ll have to deal with him this time thank you though. I am going to need my Mac sent to me. No, I’m not sure when I’ll be back, let Jameson know he’ll be taking care of the Seattle Office and I expect a full report of the meetings emailed no later than tomorrow afternoon.” She closed her eyes as Ashley responded to her, ”Thank you Ashley I’m fine that should be all for tonight” This time when she hung up she powered her phone off and threw it into her purse. 

“So is Steven your boyfriend?” I asked trying to make small talk, she snapped her head at me a slight grin forming, ”That depends on your definition of a boyfriend.” ”I didn’t realize there was a different meaning for boyfriend”, I glanced at her raising one eyebrow and smiling “What would you say he is then?” she shifted nervously in her seat biting her lip again. The wheels turned in her head as she thought about how she was going to answer me,”I guess people probably think he’s my boyfriend, but our relationship is more business-like than emotional.” I felt a slight twinge of jealousy towards Steven which took me by surprise.

”What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked enunciating the word girlfriend, I laughed, ”No I definitely do Not have a girlfriend” I said a little too quickly. I saw her smile before turning away. “So you’re a player! Figures!” She accused me, ”No I’m not a player, I just don’t have time for dating right now.” She laughed at my answer and my heart started to race, “Wow I would have thought you’d have the cowgirls lined up every night” I tried to act like her words offended me, ”What's that supposed to mean?” “Nothing, it’s just with the way my dad talks about you, I assumed you had a naive country girl to take care of you, that’s all.” She started to bite her lip again as she stared out the window. “So you're saying I could only have a naive girl?”  I didn’t take my eyes off the road 

”That's not what I meant.” 

“So what did you mean?” 

“Let's face it, it takes a certain type of girl to want to stay in the middle of nowhere completely cut off from the world just to take care of a cowboy whose number one priority will always be the ranch and she will always be number two. The ranch will ALWAYS come first.” 

Her whole body was tense as she spoke never turning to look at me.  I had this feeling that she wasn’t being honest with me, “Sounds like you have experience in that area!” the second the words were out of my mouth I regretted it. Reagan turned toward me her grey eyes flashed with anger. The look should have killed me right there on the spot, “I figured out years ago I couldn’t be anyone's second. I don’t date cowboys and have no desire to, all they do is break your heart and leave.” she turned so I couldn’t see her face. I wanted to ask her more but she stopped me before I could. “Listen, I’m not much of a conversationalist, I don’t do small talk and we have a long drive. Please don’t feel like you need to entertain me! I’d actually just prefer to listen to the radio.” she said never looking away from the window. 

“Sure thing I hope you like country” I smiled trying to lighten the mood, it didn’t work. “Figures, I don’t really care, anything will do.” she snapped. “I’m sure you're tired, if you want to fall asleep that’s fine” “NO!” she interrupted me, ”Sorry, I mean no I’ll stay awake it’s getting dark and I don’t want to risk you falling asleep” she tried to smile. “Suite yourself, since you seem to have everything figured out, we're about to hit the long stretch so if you need a rest stop now’s the time to speak up!” there’s that look again I should’ve been dead hours ago she rolled her eyes turning back to the window. 

 We were maybe thirty minutes from home when I spotted the first cow, of course, it was a black cow so I didn’t see it until the headlights flashed across it. I slammed on the brakes causing the seatbelts to lock and jerking us forward a little, ”What Are You Doing!” Reagan screamed her body shaking slightly. All the color had drained from her face. “Well, I figured you wouldn’t want us to hit the cows” I pointed towards the cow in the road. “Seriously…..” was all she said as her eyes widened, ”There’s gotta be hundreds here, grrr it’s bad enough that my grandma drives faster than you but this is going to take hours to clear. How are we getting home?” I chuckled “First off every time I started to speed up you start gripping the door like it's your only lifeline.”  I was expecting her to give me another dirty look but she surprised me when she burst out laughing instead, ”Hey it's not my fault you're a crappy driver and I need the door to save my life!” she actually sounded happy the sound causing my heart to beat a little faster. We slowly crept through trying to push the herd towards the field, every few minutes she’d bite her lip look at her watch, and then repeat the whole process again. We finally made it home at midnight and she didn’t even bother saying goodnight as she walked straight to her room and closed the door.

I decided to pick up the pace Reagan couldn’t be that much farther ahead of me.  As I rounded the bend I had no time to stop it was too late we ran full speed into each other. The impact caused both of us to lose our balance and It was all I could do to hold on to her as we slid off the steep incline.