Пепельный рассвет. Антон Демченко
ten minutes to clear the equipment. Brandy jumped behind the wheel and started the engine, and this time it didn’t even grumble. The boss waved her around with an exaggerated bow, but stepped in front of the car at the last minute.
“Now what?” The engine idled like a threshing machine, and she clutched the vibrating steering wheel.
He walked around the car to the driver’s side window. “Timing needs adjusting.”
“No kidding. Life is all about timing. And yours isn’t all that hot.” Even if the rest of him was.
“I meant your car’s running a little rough.”
He had stopped her to point out the obvious? “Thanks, I’ll get right on it.” She let up on the brake.
He slapped the roof of her car. “Wait. Something else needs fixing before you head back to town.”
She gave the righted trailer a pointed look. “Haven’t you already done what you came for?”
“Not quite.” He pulled a red bandana from the back pocket of his jeans, reached into the car and scrubbed at her cheek.
“What are you doing?” Brandy wasn’t the screeching type, but his unexpected action startled her. Even more startling, was her reaction. Without warning, the stranger’s touch slammed past the barricade she’d erected around her emotions since her divorce. He touched more than her cheek. Tapping into an undercurrent of longing, the connection flattened her defenses like an eighteen-wheeler rolling over a traffic cone.
The rush of odd feelings shook Brandy to the core, but not as much as the effort required to conceal them. Just as she began to recover from the impact, another startling thought blindsided her.
She knew this man.
The notion pierced Brandy’s mind, strong and certain. She’d seen him before. Somewhere. Sometime. Hadn’t she? No. He was definitely a stranger. And an annoying one at that. Still, she couldn’t deny the uneasy sense of having been touched by him before. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, forgetting for a moment how to drive. Instinct told her to step on the gas, yet she couldn’t resist the dangerous urge to stay. Distracted, she gunned the engine. She was light-headed and dizzy, but that was due to the sun’s heat, not the man’s.
“Next time you eat chocolate on a warm day,” he said with the twitch of a smile, “check the mirror for leftovers.” He waited five pounding heartbeats before wheeling around and striding back to his men.
Brandy stared after him, but he was intent on his work and didn’t give her another look. What an unsettling encounter. She sped away feeling ridiculous but couldn’t stop thinking about him on the drive back to town. Understandable. It had been a long time since a man had rattled her so badly.
Long time? Try never. The freaky been-there-done-that sensation inspired by Stetson’s touch was the strongest example of déjà vu she’d ever experienced. Sleeping emotions rumbled, stirring to life like a volcano that had been dormant too long.
Was this what love at first sight felt like? Or, in this case, love at first swipe? Ridiculous. She didn’t believe in anything so unrealistic, nor did she trust the swoon factor. She’d picked one husband based on runaway chemistry, and hadn’t that turned out great? She was older now. Wise enough to know better. She and Joe had spent two unhappy years together, and only one sweet thing had come from their doomed marriage. Chloe.
Her precocious, imaginative daughter’s head was often in the clouds, which meant Mommy had to keep her feet planted firmly on the ground. As strangely thrilling as that split second encounter on the road had been, she would probably never lay eyes on the guy again.
There was nothing mysterious about what had happened. Too much sun, not enough lunch and a dehydrated libido explained her crazy reaction.
Brandy pulled into the school’s turnaround driveway at three minutes past six, left the car running and hurried into the cafeteria to the after-school program. “Sorry I’m late, Amy. I was stuck in a jam.”
“No problem.” The college student in charge put away the broom.
Chloe placed the picture book she’d been reading in a big plastic tub. “Stuck in jam? That’s funny, Mommy. You mean like grape jam?”
“No, silly. Traffic jam. A truck was blocking the road.” Brandy reached into her purse. “How much do I owe you?”
Amy helped Chloe with her backpack. “Nothing. I couldn’t have left any sooner. Let’s call it even this time.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. Chloe, you’re a good helper. Would you straighten the books so the lid will fit on the tub?” Once the child’s attention was engaged, Amy took Brandy aside. “I need to ask you about Chloe’s new friend.”
“Which new friend?”
“The invisible one. She’s been talking to him a lot lately. I was wondering how you want me to handle the situation?”
Brandy was unaware of any situation in need of handling. “This is the first I’ve heard of an invisible friend.”
“Chloe spends a lot of time playing alone instead of interacting with the other kids. She carries on whole conversations with an imaginary playmate.” Amy lowered her voice. “Today I heard her saying she didn’t need his help. Said she had kindergarten under control. She has a great vocabulary, by the way.”
“Yes, I know.” Pride replaced worry. “She tested out at the ninth-grade level in receptive and seventh-grade in expressive. Her IQ is above average, too. Did you know she taught herself to read last year using two packs of sight cards and a stack of Dr. Seuss books?”
“She’s an incredible little girl.”
“She’s very creative. I’m sure the pretend playmate is just another figment of her imagination,” Brandy suggested.
“I learned in my child psychology class that the creation of an imaginary world isolates a child from the real one. It can be the sign of a deeper problem.”
“Really?” Brandy’s empty stomach clenched with worry. Why hadn’t she thought of that?
“She got a little upset today. I overheard her telling her ‘friend’ to go away, which might mean something. She said school was a kid’s job, and if he kept hanging around he would get her fired.”
Brandy winced. Chloe knew all about that. Brandy had lost two jobs because of childcare conflicts. “Thank you for sharing your concerns, Amy. I appreciate the time and attention you give Chloe.”
“She’s a joy. I hope I’m not out of line, but I talked to Megan, the other caregiver, and she didn’t know what to do, either.”
Brandy patted the girl’s arm. “You’re not out of line. Chloe is obviously having more trouble adjusting to the move than I thought. Thanks for letting me know.”
Amy nodded. “New town. New house. New school. Lots of changes.”
“The pace was much slower back home. Now she has to get up early for before-school care, spend all day in the gifted-and-talented kindergarten and stay for after-school care, too.”
“I can so identify. I have three part-time jobs and a full course load at Odessa College. Okay for me, but stressful for a five-year-old.”
Doubt flooded Brandy’s stomach with a tsunami acid wave. Had she traumatized Chloe by abandoning their familiar world to start over in a strange city? She’d made hard choices recently. What if they had been the wrong ones?
Her boss, Mr. Futterman, didn’t think a woman with a child could devote a hundred percent of her energy to work. Naively she had hoped a career with real earning potential would be her ticket out of the nickel-and-dime job world, but she’d had another reason for putting herself through paralegal school.
She wanted to accomplish