Page 30 of Serious Cowboy
Dumb driver.
Heart thundering, he continued on his way home glad he was less than a mile from his turnoff. All he had to do now was cross the short bridge that spanned over Ugly Fish Creek. Legend had it that the name came not from some angler catching an ugly fish, but that an indigenous native from the area had told a new settler the name of the creek in his original language. In English, the words sounded like Ugly Fish, so the name stuck.
Zeke had just been thinking about that local story when he passed the sign that said,Warning: bridge may ice over during cold weather.His eyes registered the words, but he’d passed the thing a million times. He didn’t worry about it.
He knew this route like the back of his hand. In fact, his phone had lit up right then, and thinking it might be Callie, all his attention zeroed in on it. It was just an email notification from his local grocery store, so he transferred his focus back to the road.
Even still, he hadn’t been prepared for what happened next.
Zeke’s tires lost contact with the road so suddenly that he didn’t have the option of straightening himself out, and hispickup whirled in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle. He hadn’t been speeding, but he’d been driving fast enough that he completely lost control of his vehicle.
He was still spinning when he saw the flash of headlights and the sound of not a horn but of brakes. Jake Brakes, to be exact. The kind that eighteen-wheelers used. It must’ve come around the curve at the other end of the bridge. But although Zeke yanked his wheel, the semi was already on top of him.
They slammed into one another with an impact that jarred Zeke so badly that it physically hurt. Then, there was a bright light right in his face as he was spun in a completely different direction. He crashed through the cement structure of the wall that outlined the bridge, and despite having his seatbelt on, he felt gravity tearing at his body as if he were nothing but a ragdoll.
Still fastened into his pickup they both fell, giving him the sensation of weightlessness for a brief second, then they landed, rolling so that he couldn’t tell up from down or down from up. He thought he might’ve screamed, but he couldn’t be sure. All at once everything came to an abrupt halt, and agony, pure and acute, radiated through him so powerfully that the only thing he wanted was for it to stop.
Only after the darkness came, one so impenetrable that it overtook his consciousness, did the pain end. And with the dim knowledge that he might not wake up, his thoughts eddied into nothing one last time.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Callie’s phone rang,and for the most fleeting of heartbeats, hope sprung up within her that it might be Zeke, finally contacting her. But it wasn’t Zeke. Of course, it wasn’t. It was Daisy, and Callie felt a rush of disappointment, then guilt.
She shouldn’t feel let down by her bestie reaching out to her. That was just wrong. So, when she answered, she made a point of utilizing the most cheerful tone possible into her voice.
“Daze, how are you?”
“Callie, I have the most amazing news. You know how I got a new boss last month?”
“Yeah.” She’d mentioned it.
“Well, she pulled me into her office earlier today and told me how impressed she was with my work. She gave me a promotion. I’m now the new Junior Vice President over retail sales.” Daisy literally squealed with joy.
“That’s wonderful,” Callie exclaimed, reflecting that joy back at her even though she didn’t have clue what her best friend actually did for a living.
Oh, she knew Daisy worked in advertising and marketing, but when it came down to understanding her day-to-day tasks, Callie had always been a bit blurry about specifics. But it didn’t matter. If Daisy was happy, she was happy for her.
Her phone beeped in her ear, and when she glanced at the screen she could see that Tim was also trying to call her. Seeing the screen light up with the alternatives of putting her bestie on hold to accept the call or to ignore her brother’s interruption, she decided to ignore Tim. Daisy was so excited, and Callie could just call her brother back later.
After a few seconds, Tim gave up.
“So, did you get some perks with this position?” she asked.
“I did,” Daisy said, and had begun to enumerate them when another beep sounded on Callie’s end. Her brother hadn’t bothered to leave a voicemail but was calling her again. He was being such a pain. Why couldn’t he leave her a message like a normal person?
Callie continued to listen to her friend as Tim’s second interruption ceased, but then, right after that, he lit up her phone with athirdcall. What was up with all these back-to-back disruptions? He never did this.
What on Earth was going on with him?
“Daze, I hate to do this, but my brother is calling me over and over. Can I put you on hold for just a sec?”
“Of course. Hope everything’s okay.”
“I’m sure it is,” Callie began to say, but then it occurred to her that he wouldn’t keep bothering her like this unless something not okay had transpired.
What if one of the kids had done something to themselves? Brian, in particular, had been known to climb things he shouldn’t. Once, he’d even jumped off the roof with nothing but a sheet after he’d seen a show about people hang gliding. He’d sprained one of his ankles seriously enough to require a cast.
So, Callie switched lines.