Short Rides (Rough Riders 14.5)

Awesome. She hadn’t run this hot and cold even as a teenager. She hated that a curt word or a scowl from him set her off into a fit of rage or a river of tears. Yet she was sick of him and everyone else muttering about her out-of-whack hormones.

So she opted to take the high road for a change. “Sorry to interrupt you.” Keely pushed off the doorframe and pulled the door shut behind her. Not slamming it. Point for her.

But Jack didn’t chase her down.

That thought caused a pang of sadness. But it also steeled her determination to do something besides wait around for him.

Keely grabbed her things from her office. Although it was only three-thirty, she shut off the lights and locked the building.

Once she was in her Escalade tooling down the road, she realized she didn’t want to go home. As social as her life was living amongst her assorted McKay and West relatives, she didn’t want to hang out with any of them.

The baby performed a kick/karate chop maneuver and she rubbed a hand over her belly. “Guess you’re fine with it bein’ you and me, huh baby D? What should we do? Daddy forbids horseback riding. No more putzing around on the ATV either.”

She could go to Ziggy’s—see who was celebrating an early happy hour. Throw some darts. Play some pool. But then again...her body weight balance had shifted so much in the last few months that she sucked at darts. Her oversized belly made it impossible to lean over a pool table to make a decent shot.

On impulse she drove to Spearfish.

She wandered around Walmart. Annoyed with herself for being lonely but not wanting any company. Wanting this baby out so badly, but scared to death for it to actually come out. Then the baby did a full belly roll inside her that took her breath away, forcing her to rest on a porch swing in the lawn and garden department.

As she rocked, her thoughts wandered to Jack. First time he’d been snappish with her for a while. He’d been solicitous lately—to the point she suspected the man was walking on egg shells around her.

Can you blame him after your meltdown two weeks ago?

That wasn’t her fault. The stupid mixer had gotten stuck and sprayed red velvet cake batter everywhere. What woman wouldn’t have thrown it off the deck and beat it to smithereens with a sledge hammer?

But Jack didn’t think her behavior was normal. He’d locked up all the power tools in the shed and refused to give her a key to the new paddle lock.

So maybe she’d had a few crazy moments. But instead of fighting back, Jack had become gentle with her. Not that she wanted him to be a dick, but he hadn’t been acting like the Jack she knew and loved.

“Ma’am? Are you all right?”

Startled out of her brooding, Keely glanced up at the young Walmart employee. “I just felt a little dizzy and needed to sit.”

“Okay.” His gaze slid to the cart parked alongside the garden hose display. A cart filled with bags of candy and potato chips. Three liters of strawberry soda. A tube of KY. And two containers of Brussels sprouts. “Is that your cart? Because I can take it up to the checkout for you.”

She looked him in the eye and lied. “I have no idea whose cart that is. It was there when I sat down.”

“Oh. I’ll just move it out of your way then.”

She sighed. So much for sneaking junk food into the house. But her Gestapo husband would’ve confiscated it anyway and lectured her on bad eating habits. He found no humor in her pointing out that her cravings weren’t clichéd like pickles and ice cream.

So it was the first time she’d ever left Walmart empty-handed.

Hungry—again—Keely stopped into a sports bar for a burger and ordered a salad, rather than a mountain of French fries. With her feet up on the bench seat, she watched the news and Wheel of Fortune. When she glanced at the clock, she realized she’d managed to kill three hours since she’d left the office.

But she still didn’t want to go home.

She checked the newspaper for movie show times. Two movies she’d never convince Jack to see were playing. Perfect way to entertain herself.

In the nearly empty theater she chose a seat where she could put her feet up. By the time the movie ended, her restlessness had abated and even baby D had settled down. So she opted to make it a double feature. For the second movie she armed herself with a jumbo bucket of popcorn slathered with butter, an extra-large box of Sugar Babies and a caffeine-free soda.

Mood lighter after the sappy love story and an action flick where the hero had blown up a shit ton of stuff, she sang along with the country tunes on the radio. So she didn’t hear the siren behind her, but she sure noticed the flashing lights in her rearview mirror.

So much for her good mood.

Keely watched as her brother Cam got out of the deputy’s car. By the time he reached her she’d rolled the window down. She felt her own panic rise when she saw the panic on his face. “Cam. What’s wrong?”

“Jesus Christ, Keely. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because Jack’s been going out of his goddamned mind the last four hours trying to track you down.” He stuck his head in the window. “Where’s your cell phone?”

“I don’t know. I must’ve left the house without it. Or left it at the office.”

“You are a pregnant woman. You need to have that phone on you at all times, do you hear me?”

Enough. She was too damn old for another ass-chewing session, especially when she had to pee again. “Is that some kind of Crook County law I wasn’t aware of, Deputy? Are you gonna write me a f**king ticket for not having my cell phone on my person?”

“Don’t be a smart ass.”

“Don’t be a pain in my ass,” she shot back. “And I don’t need a goddamn lecture from you—”

“Yes, you do, when your husband has called the entire family to find out where the hell you are! He’s worried sick, Keely. Are you really blaming him when you’ve been out of contact for hours?”

Her mouth dropped open. “Are you kiddin’ me? I went to the movies after my husband told me to leave him alone so he could work! And then he has the balls to act all concerned, like it’s my fault? Bullshit.” She glared at Cam. “Not only did the bastard call my family to tattle on me, he called you and put out a BOLO on me too? Un-fucking-believable. He’s really gonna wish he hadn’t done that when I use a croquet mallet on his goddamned laptop and cell phone.” Just thinking about beating the f**k out of his precious electronics made her almost giddy.