"Hey, Hank," I greeted. "I'm up."
"Just givin' you a wake-up call, son," he chuckled.
"I know, I know. I'll be dropping the trailer off within an hour and I should be back around noon. Will you be at the shop?"
Hank almost always called me bright and early when I was on the road. He knew I had a tendency to oversleep. I wasn't normally a morning person, but I was extra chipper today-because of a certain someone-and it didn't take long for him to notice.
"Yep, I'll be here." His tone turned suspicious. "What's goin' on?"
"I just, ah," I looked over at Angel. "I got someone I want you to meet."
"Ah, hell, Travis," he said. "What did you do?"
Hank was a smart guy. He knew how life on the road worked for some people and I knew what he was thinking. He was wrong.
"It's not what you're thinking," I promised.
He sighed. "Alright. I'll see ya here at the shop later."
"Ten-four," I said and I could hear him snickering at my trucker lingo as he hung up.
I put my phone aside and looked over to find Angel threading her fingers through her hair, swiftly putting it into another messy side-braid. I fucking loved her hair like that.
"Alright, Angel." I reached over and gave her braid a little tug. "It's time for you to see how this impressive piece of machinery works."
*
After we left the rest stop, we went by a fast food place for some breakfast and coffee. We briefly argued over the fact that I insisted on paying again, but she gave in when I told her I would keep track of the amount I spent so she could pay me back once she got a steady income.
Did I have any intention of actually keeping her money? Hell no. But I didn't tell her that.
She made a face when she found out I drink my coffee black, and I learned that Angel doesn't drink coffee but it's her favorite ice cream flavor.
The residence where I was taking the trailer wasn't far from where we stopped, so the ride was quick, and Angel looked excited when I explained the process of detaching the trailer from the truck.
"So, you just leave the trailer at their house?" she asked.
"Yep. Colton comes back in two days to hook it back up, then he'll bring it up to Champaign to where they're moving." I told her about how Hank & Sons got started, how our company worked, and how I liked the longer hauls, while Colton did most of the deliveries closer to home.
"That's so neat, how you guys started this business," she praised, looking genuinely impressed. "What do you do between deliveries? Or do you have them all the time?"
"The transport business isn't always consistent, so I still work at the auto shop between hauls. My next trip is in a couple weeks," I said, realizing Angel would still be around. I could have her stay at my apartment during the trip, but I'd be gone for at least three days. "Would you want to ride along with me?" I asked her, hopeful.
I don't know why I was afraid she'd say no. I guess I just really liked the idea of her being on the road with me.
"Yes!" She bounced excitedly in her seat. "Where are you going?"
"Denver, Colorado. When I drop the trailer off, the clients have a six-hour window to get their things unloaded, so I usually sight-see or do touristy stuff for the day. That's one of the reasons I like long road trips. It's like getting paid to take a mini-vacation."
"Can we go snowboarding?" she asked, still jumping in her seat. Biting my lip, I held back a groan because the movement was causing her tits to bounce up and down. I tried to avert my eyes but it was a struggle. "I've never been snowboarding before," she continued, oblivious to my ogling.
"We can do anything you want," I told her, and I meant it.
I had a feeling she would get her way with me a lot.
ANGEL
I followed behind Travis while he prepared the trailer to be detached from the truck. There was a lot of unhooking, unplugging, and hissing sounds.
"You gotta release the fifth wheel pin-that's this part right here," he explained as he pulled on a metal bar under the trailer.
He said a few more truck terms I'd never heard before, and I tried not to let my eyes glaze over. It's not that it wasn't interesting, because it was. But he may as well have been speaking another language.
The most interesting part was watching him, watching his body as he moved around the semi. He definitely knew what he was doing. It looked like he'd done it a hundred times, and I guess he probably had.
A couple times he bent over and his white T-shirt rode up exposing tan skin and two dimples in the muscles of his lower back. The jeans he'd changed into were worn and they fit snugly to his backside.
He has such a nice butt.
I blushed because I'd been openly checking him out, but luckily he was too busy concentrating on the truck to notice.
Travis pushed some buttons inside the cab and two thick metal legs descended to the ground where he'd placed square wooden platforms. He explained that the legs would support the end of the trailer once it was fully detached.
After he seemed satisfied with all the tinkering he'd done, he hopped back into the driver's seat and shot me a sexy half-smile while I stood a good distance away to watch.
The engine rumbled as he drove forward and just like that, the huge semi looked … Tiny.
Well, it was still a big vehicle, but it was tiny in comparison to what it used to look like with the trailer on the back end. It was unbelievable.
I stood next to the truck while Travis had the clients sign a form saying he had delivered the trailer, and I heard him tell them Colton would pick it back up in two days and bring it to their new location no later than 4PM that same day. I was impressed with how professional he was.
After that, we were back on the road headed to Travis's hometown. When I agreed to stay with him for a while, one thing I hadn't considered was the fact that I was probably going to meet his family and friends.
Suddenly, I was nervous. Really nervous.
How could I explain how Travis and I met?
Oh, I was just hitchhiking across the country because I'm a homeless runaway …
It was that moment when I realized how screwed up my life truly was. I was a mess.
Travis had it all figured out. He had a home, a stable job, and family that loved him.
The crush I had on him suddenly seemed ridiculous. Did I really think I had a chance with him?
How could I be so silly? There was no way he needed someone like me barreling into his life, stirring things up, then leaving.
Just as I thought about backing out of our deal, I felt something slide across my palm. I looked down into my lap to find Travis's fingers intertwined with mine. His hands were callused and rough. A working man's hands. Tingles raced up the skin on my arm as I felt his thumb gently rub back and forth across my knuckles.
He gave me a reassuring squeeze before putting two hands back on the wheel. "It's gonna be okay," he promised.
It was as though he could read my mind, and his words were reassuring. How was it possible for him to instantly make me feel better?
Maybe it wasn't normal to feel so safe with someone I just met. Maybe there was something wrong with me. But maybe I just didn't care.
*
"Do you have any good friends back in Maine?" Travis asked once we got out on to the highway.
"I had a few friends at my old school, but we lost touch when I moved away. The foster family I lived with had a no social media rule. I had to deactivate my accounts and they took my cell phone." I shrugged because it really wasn't that big of a deal since I didn't have a lot of people to call anyway. "Plus, we were all graduating and a lot of people planned to go to college out of state. They had their big plans and now I have mine."
"You didn't want to go to college? I'm not judging, by the way," Travis added.
"I'd gotten accepted to the University of Maine, but that was before … "
He nodded in understanding. "And now you're here."
"Yep. Now I'm here." I shrugged.
The next couple of hours went faster than I thought they would. Travis let me have complete control over the radio, telling me he liked everything except for death metal. I decided on an oldies station, but neither of us seemed to pay attention to the music.
To pass the time, we played Twenty Questions-celebrity edition. Eight questions later, I correctly guessed his pick was Tom Hanks, while it took him twelve questions to figure out I was thinking of Lady Gaga. Travis retold the story of how he and Colton met, since I'd fallen asleep in the middle of it the night before, and he fondly described the town of Tolson. When he talked about his home, small town pride was evident in his voice.
Before I knew it, we were driving down Main Street of the smallest town I'd ever seen. The strip of houses was only about a half a mile long with a few businesses in between, including Hank's Auto Shop. Across from the shop there were two taverns, a small bank, and an even smaller post office.