A Turn in the Road - Debbie Macomber [40]
“That scares us, Grandma. That really scares us.”
Ruth dropped the clothes and, feeling more than a little ridiculous, hurried over to Annie.
They heard the roar of a motorcycle in the distance.
“Mom’s back!” Annie cried.
The weight of worry and responsibility instantly lifted from Ruth’s shoulders—until Max rode into view.
He was alone.
Ruth grabbed Annie’s arm. “Your mother isn’t with him,” she hissed.
“She’s probably with the tow truck driver,” Annie said, not revealing the slightest alarm. “And where is the tow truck?” she asked. A chill went down her spine. Hands on her hips, Ruth marched up to Max and waited until he’d turned off that blasted ear-splitting engine. “What have you done with my daughter-in-law?” she demanded.
Max slowly removed his helmet.
“I want to know right this minute where Bethanne is,” she yelled.
“Grandma, Grandma,” Annie hollered. “The tow truck is here.”
Ruth wagged her finger under Max’s nose. “You’re fortunate Bethanne is safe. Otherwise…otherwise, you would’ve been sorry.”
“Ooh, he’s shaking in his boots,” Rooster said, then practically collapsed with laughter.
Ruth was pleased to know she was such a source of amusement. The tow truck parked, the passenger door opened and Bethanne climbed down. Ruth ran over to her.
“I was so worried,” she blurted as she pulled Bethanne into her arms and hugged her hard.
“I’m fine, Ruth, just fine.”
Bethanne stretched out one arm to Annie and they held hands. “I talked to a mechanic who’s going to fix the car. We’ll need to spend the night in Wells, but we should be able to leave sometime tomorrow.”
Annie nodded. “As soon as we’re somewhere with cell coverage, I’ll find us a hotel room and cancel our reservations in Ely.”
“Now I’m thinking we shouldn’t go to Vegas,” Ruth said. “We went off course and look what happened.”
“Not go to Vegas?” Annie wailed. “Oh, Grandma, we can’t change our plans now.”
“Why can’t we?”
“I—” Annie turned to Bethanne. “Mom…”
“I was looking forward to seeing Vegas and so was Annie,” Bethanne said. “I’m sure everything will be fine now. We’ll pick up a new rental car while we’re there and continue on our trip.”
Ruth seemed unconvinced. “I don’t know….”
“Please, Grandma,” Annie begged. “Vegas will be fun, and after today that’s what we need.”
“Oh, all right.” She felt she’d succumbed far too easily, but it wasn’t in her to disappoint Annie or Bethanne.
“Good.” Bethanne returned to the tow truck and removed a large white bag.
“What’s that?” Annie asked.
“I got the driver to take me to a fast food place so I could pick up burger-and-fry combos for the guys,” she said. “I can hardly imagine what we would’ve done if they hadn’t stopped by the lake when they did.”
“You bought them burgers?” These were the men who’d frightened her out of several years of her life, and her daughter-in-law wanted to feed them?
Bethanne brought the bag over to the bikers who were, thankfully, dressed by now. At least Bethanne had been spared that sight.
“You should know Grandma there tried to abscond with our clothes,” Rooster said as he helped himself to a burger and a bag of fries. His eyes twinkled with merriment. “She assumed that was a major threat.”
“We showed her,” Willie said.
“That’s just it,” Ruth snapped, unwilling to be the butt of their jokes. “You did show me—you exposed yourselves. There’s laws against that. I should’ve made a citizen’s arrest.”
Bethanne grinned, and Ruth decided it would be best to simply drop the matter.
Annie distributed the rest of the food, and the men sat together while the three women went off to relax under the tree.
Ruth hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until she drank a bottle of the water Bethanne had brought back. They’d already eaten lunch, but even if she’d been ravenous, she couldn’t have managed a bite—and the thought of a greasy burger was singularly unappealing.