May forecast: Unseasonably hot, humid. Highs nearing 100.

Shit… not again…

The thuk, thuk, thuk of ragged rubber on asphalt had me easing off the gas and gripping the wheel for all I was worth. Only a hundred damned miles outside of Texas and this was my second flat in the last six hours. I let the jeep slow on its own and pulled off onto the shoulder. Hell, I was getting good at this.

I shut off the engine and took my last long swallow of tepid water. Leaning back in the seat, I allowed myself a few quiet moments to watch the thunderhead growing on the horizon. It was hot. Fucking hot for spring, and I’d already stripped as far as I dared. Tiny pink tee and shorts. Sweat trickled down the back of my neck and I sighed impatiently. I wasn’t up for this.

I threw on my beat-up old Stetson and climbed out to survey the damage. Not good. The tire was the newest one on the vehicle, and the tread trailed in shreds. I used the elastic band on my wrist to bundle up way too much hair, and crammed my hat down to hold it in place. I dug out the lug wrench, again, and went to work.

But not before I gave the tire the ass-kicking it deserved with the pointed toe of my boot.

“Well, hey there, honey. You look like you could use a cold drink.”

The waitress was thick around the middle, a nametag perched over her generous bosom, and wiping down the lunch counter with a cloth. The little bell tinkled above me as I paused in the doorway, and the first cold wave of blessed air conditioning washed over me.

“You sit right on down here,” the little woman waved her hand. “My name’s Doris, and you just take your time with the menu.” She eyeballed me hard. “How long you been drivin’, honey? You look done in.” She wiped her hands on her pink and white apron.

I picked up the glass of ice water she put in front of me and downed it in two swallows. She refilled it, and I resisted the urge to pour it over my head. Just barely.

“Two days, more or less,” I answered, holding the red plastic glass to the side of my neck. “Should’ve made it in one.” I shook my head and she smiled, wrinkles lining her face.

“Well, the road usually has its own timing,” she said, nodding. “Where you headed?”

“Home,” I blurted. “Well… Texas anyway. I’m not sure if it is still home. Or if it ever really was.” Doris cocked an eyebrow, waiting. “My brother Dean still lives there,” I offered. “I guess that’s close enough.”

I ordered the club salad special and watched as Doris handed the order slip back to the cook. He stared at me a little too long as he took it, just like the old man who’d patched my first flat back in Kansas. But I was used to it. All through college it had been the same. Guys with eyes. And little else. I wasn’t much interested, then or now. I hadn’t gone to Kansas U to have a good time. I’d gone there to get my degree. And I had.

The Decker family matriarch had reluctantly condescended to pay my tuition… and my brother’s as well. So long as we kept our noses clean and our grade point averages up. I’d figured it was probably the only chance I’d ever get, so I’d worked my butt off. I might have left Texas a scared kid, but I was coming home a magna cum laude graduate with a degree in social work. I was coming home to help people who’d grown up just like me, helpless as their lives fell in around them. Only now I was a grown woman, strong and capable. And no one was ever going to see me as helpless again. Especially Joe…

“There you go…?” Doris put the heaping plate of salad in front of me, an expectant look on her face.

“Maggie,” I supplied.

“There you go, Maggie.” She smiled and tipped her head over her shoulder. “Looks like Jimmy’s got a sweet spot for you. He never gives anybody extra bacon bits.” I sighed and dug in, wishing I’d had the sense to pull a shirt on over my tank top.

“You plannin’ to push on through tonight?” Doris asked kindly. “I gotta work the overnight tonight, and you look like you could use a shower and a little shut-eye. Tell you what. I got a little motel just a quarter mile down the road. Only three units and one is mine. But the others are empty right now. Won’t hurt me any if you take one for the night.”

She reached in her pocket and selected a key from the tangle of others. She pushed it across the counter. “I have a daughter who looks a lot like you. Haven’t seen her in ten… no, twelve years now.” She patted my hand and I smiled into her warm, tired eyes. “Just drop the key back in the morning, honey. I know all about goin’ home again. It’s bittersweet, for certain. Sometimes a touch heavy on the bitter…”

I reached for my bag, searching for my wallet. “I can’t thank you enough,” I said, relaxing for the first time since I’d loaded up the car and left the last four years of my life behind me. “But I’m happy to pay…”

“Not a chance, honey.” Doris pushed a lank curl back under her hairnet. “This’s my treat. You just think of this as home sayin’ it’s happy you’re back.” She slid the glass door open and reached into the pie case, pulling out a slice of banana cream. “On the house,” she said, smiling. “You sure do favor my Alice. She was beautiful, too…”

“Why’s she been away from home for so long?” I pushed the remains of the salad aside and took a cold, creamy bite of pie. Pure heaven.

“She ran off with some no-good. I told her as much… and never heard from her again.” It was my turn to pat Doris’s hand. I could see her tears starting to build.

“What about you, Maggie?” She wiped at her eyes brusquely. “You got a man waiting for you at home? Forgive me for sayin’, but you’ve got the look of a woman who’s been apart from her man too long.” She smiled shyly. ‘You know… sorta’ impatient?”

I smiled back and let out my breath. “Joe,” I said, more to myself than to her. It had been so long since I’d said his name out loud. It felt foreign on my tongue. Sweet.

No… bittersweet, just like Doris had said. I wasn’t coming home to Texas. I was coming home to Joe. And I had no idea what that meant. I couldn’t even be sure he remembered me… Last I saw him was four years ago, just before I left for my freshman year. But he hadn’t seen me. He’d been too busy with the hot little redhead on his arm.

And the last time he’d seen me, I’d been only seven years old. A scared little kid with knobby knees and unbrushed hair. Dad was still alive then, but too deep into the bottle and his flashbacks to care. Dean had been fifteen, and more interested in his own friends than a needy little sister.

Joe had been my whole world back then. And ever since, I’d never been able to completely shake that feeling. He’d watched out for me, the way my dad never had. Joe had wiped my nose and bandaged my scraped elbows. He’d read me stories and told me jokes until I’d rolled with laughter. He’d been the one bright spot in a lonely childhood, and I’d grown up loving him. How the hell could I not?

Will you marry me someday, when I get big? You’ll keep me safe, won’t you, Joe? Promise me…?

I still cringed whenever I remembered begging him to promise me… and seeing the pity in his eyes. But that was a damned long time ago. So long, he might not remember. Or recognize the woman I was now.

I looked back into Doris’s careworn face. She was searching mine gently. “Is Joe your boyfriend, honey? Is he a good man?”

“He is a good man,” I answered softly. “The only man I ever looked up to in my whole life… The best man I ever knew…”

“You two gonna get married?”

“We’re kind of engaged,” I said with a wistful smile, thinking back. I shook my head slowly. “But I don’t think so… We’re from two different worlds.

And by now, he’s forgotten all about me…”