Leverage. Janie Crouch

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СКАЧАТЬ to drive.”

      “I can see about a commercial flight.”

      “By the time you got to an airport big enough, that would take nearly as long as driving. Listen, I’m sorry I was abrupt before. I just didn’t have all the information.” Dylan shrugged. “I can fly you to DC. But since this storm seems to have stalled out right on top of us, it’s going to be a few hours. Probably three or four.”

      Four hours? Shelby looked at her watch. It was after 10:00 p.m. She didn’t relish the idea of sitting in her car for that long, but surely Sally’s diner was going to close soon. Shrugging, Shelby turned toward her car.

      Dylan touched her arm. “Look, the airfield is out near my house. Why don’t you just come stay at my place, get a few hours of sleep, then we’ll be ready to go when this series of storms passes.”

      Shelby moved away from his touch. “Uh, no, thank you.”

      “Why?”

      “Are you kidding me?” Shelby’s voice was pretty loud. A couple leaving the closing diner looked over at Shelby and Dylan. Dylan waved, but Shelby ignored them.

      “No, I’m not kidding you. It’s a logical solution.”

      “Why would I stay with someone who out of the blue started treating me like I have the bubonic plague? No, thanks, I’ll just stay here.”

      “You can’t stay here. The restaurant is closing.” Dylan’s voice had raised to a yell, probably to compensate for the thunder overhead. Unfortunately, the teenage waitress came outside just in time to hear his shout, but not the thunder. She stared at Dylan and Shelby with wide eyes.

      “Is everything okay, Mr. Dylan?”

      “It’s fine, Jennifer,” Dylan told the girl. “Be careful driving home in this mess.”

      Jennifer kept watching them as she walked to her car. Looked as if Dylan’s yell was the most excitement she had seen in a while.

      But the fact that Dylan knew Jennifer’s name reassured Shelby a bit, as did the fact that the girl was so shocked by how he was acting. Obviously, Dylan didn’t normally stand around the parking lot yelling at women.

      “Sally is closing up for the night. You can’t go back in there.”

      “Fine. I’ll just hang out in my car. Text me when you think it’s safe to take off and I’ll meet you at the airport.”

      Shelby heard Dylan’s sigh. “It’s not an airport, more like an airfield.” A few drops of rain started to fall. It wouldn’t be long until the thunderous clouds produced rainstorms again.

      “Don’t stay in your car,” he continued. “There’s a motel a couple of blocks down the road. Stay there at least. Not out in this storm.”

      He was right. Shelby didn’t mind paying for a room she’d only spend a few hours in. Especially if it meant she wouldn’t have to talk to any other people unnecessarily.

      Or have to stay with a man who had made up his mind to dislike her for no apparent reason.

      Shelby left the shelter of the overhang near the diner’s front entrance to cross to where her car was parked. “Okay, fine.” She gave him her phone number. “Just text me or whatever when you’re ready.”

      The rain was really starting to come down now. “I’ll follow you in my truck. Just to make sure everything’s okay.”

      That was the exact opposite of what Shelby expected. She said nothing, just pulled up the collar of her jacket for protection from the rain. She thought she heard Dylan say something else to her, but she just wanted to make it across the street to her car. She understood why they had built the restaurant on one side of the road and the parking lot on the other—the diner had amazing views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. They wouldn’t want to use any of that prime real estate on parking.

      But having to cross the street in the rain made Shelby wish they had put the parking closer.

      She heard someone yell, but figured it was someone from the restaurant saying goodbye to Dylan. If he was trying to get her attention, he could just wait until they got to the motel. She wasn’t having a conversation out in the cold rain.

      Shelby heard the squealing of tires as she reached the other side of the road. She looked up to see a car barreling toward her so fast she couldn’t even figure out what to do.

      Her world tilted as a weight hit her from her right and she went flying sideways through the air. A split second later, the car sped through where Shelby had just been standing, not even slowing down. It sprayed water from puddles, soaking Shelby from head to foot.

      From where she lay on the ground, Shelby sucked in deep breaths, trying to get her bearings. She’d been hit, right? But not by the car. She turned her head to the side and saw Dylan lying on the ground with her.

      “Are you okay?” he asked.

      “Yes. Are you? What in the world just happened?” Her limbs were tangled with Dylan’s.

      “That car almost hit you. I saw it speeding down the road and yelled, but you didn’t hear me.”

      That wasn’t totally true. Shelby had heard him, she just hadn’t wanted to stop in the rain.

      “Well, your reflexes are better than mine. Thank you.”

      “I had forward momentum going for me, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it.”

      What he really meant was Shelby wouldn’t have made it. Dylan could’ve stayed safely on the side of the road and would’ve been just fine.

      They both began to sit up. Ouch. Shelby could already feel a rip in her coat at the elbow where she’d hit the hardest, although Dylan had taken the brunt of the fall.

      “Are you okay?” she asked him. “You took your weight and some of mine.”

      “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Dylan got to his feet then offered his hand to help Shelby up. She gratefully took it, grabbing her purse and working her way to a standing position. Now everything was starting to hurt. And this was what not getting hit by a car felt like.

      “Did the person driving just not see me?” They walked the rest of the way to her car.

      “It’s possible.”

      “But?” Shelby could hear the but in his tone. She was trying to get her keys out of her purse, but found her hands were shaking pretty badly. Dylan reached over and held the purse for her so she could manage to fish them out.

      “But it actually sped up. Definitely wasn’t typical rainy-night-driving behavior.”

      “Drunk, I’ll bet you. That’s the second time I’ve been almost run off the road. People around here need to pay better attention.” Shelby got her keys out and clicked open her car. She just wanted to get out of the rain.

      Dylan was looking toward where the car had sped off. “Yeah. For sure.”

      They walked СКАЧАТЬ