Broken Road

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Winthrop stalled as long as he could before taking her into town. He was quick in learning that she lived up to her name.

   Devil, he thought with a bit of irony. What kind of parent names their kid Devil?

   He shook his head and concentrated on the rode. They had just left the ranch and with every passing minute he wished he had never left it. He hadn’t left the ranch in months. What were people gonna think when they saw him with her? Most likely they’re going to think she was a high schooler like he had.

   Winthrop felt his eyes drift from the road towards her again; he couldn’t seem to help himself when it came to her. She had the window rolled down and the wind was teasing her long hair and a smile spread across her lips as she saw something new pass by. Devil held her baby girl tight to her chest and pointed at things telling the baby about each one. The baby giggled at the funny faces her mother was making and her mama laughed back.

   The laughter in the truck did something to Winthrop. It gave him a lightened feeling in his chest and dug up a long forgotten smile from somewhere in his heart. He realized for the first time he could remember that he was happy.

   Lilla giggled as she tugged on some of Devil’s hair and Devil laughed and kissed her forehead. The baby had turned her inside out and upside down with nothing more then a smile and some giggles.

   After years of few smiles and no laughter it felt good to have to do nothing and be careless. She was free for at least a little while and could plan out what she was going to do next. Now that she had Lilla it was time to start thinking about a home, and when Wylde came back they could all be together.

   There was that voice in the back of her mind however hat told her that she would never see her sister again, but she forced that voice to somewhere she wouldn’t have to listen to it.

   There was a shift in the mood inside the truck and Devil turned to Mr. Canter with a questioning look.

   He was looking at her with a tender smile that sent her heart racing and after a second Devil couldn’t take it anymore. It was doing strange things to her pulse and made her want to do strange things with the man. Things she shouldn’t even be thinking of.

   “Stop it,” she muttered at him, looking away as her face heated with her thoughts.

   Her word hit him like a bucket of icy water. He shouldn’t have been staring at her the way he had! Or any way for that matter. He was thinking of things he should not be thinking of.

   Winthrop kept he eyes on the rode after that. No sense in losing his pride when she could tear it to pieces without lifting a finger.

   The sign they passed soon said that twenty more miles were ahead of them before they reached to small town of Marlo and Devil pulled out her cell phone to call her manager. After three rings Celia Buch, twenty-five, manager and best friend to Devil for more then fours years, picked up her phone and said in greeting, “What are you!”

   Devil smiled a little. “Nice to talk to you too. I’m somewhere close. Listen I need you to do me a favor.”

   “Sure thing, but tell me where in the hell you are!”

   “Meet me at the Harvest Inn in Marlo with my stuff please. There is someone I want you to meet,” Devil whispered into the phone.

   There was a silence on the other end and just when Devil had thought Celia had hung up on her there was a meaning laugh on the other end of the line.