Jackrabbit Junction Jitters Read Online Free Page A

she watched him stride across the
parking lot: his long legs covered in jeans, his boots worn at the back of the
heel, his butt …
    Someone rapped on the passenger side window.
    Kate jerked, knocking her knee on the underside of the dash.
“Ow, damn!” She rubbed her kneecap.
    “Unlock the door, Kathryn. Hurry up before I wilt!”
    Kate hit the button that unlocked the door. She grimaced at
the gush of heat that whooshed into the car, along with an eye-watering whiff
of sandalwood and jasmine as Deborah Morgan dropped into the passenger seat.
    “What did you do in there, Mom? Bathe in your Chanel No. 5?”
    “That was one of the most disgusting bathrooms I’ve ever
seen.” Deborah’s nose wrinkled as she fished a Kleenex from her purse. “Apparently,
they haven’t heard of bleach in this part of the country.”
    Kate rolled her eyes. After driving over 1000 miles cooped
up with her mother, who had bitched non-stop about the cost of gas, Kate’s need
to speed, and Gramps marrying some floozy, Kate couldn’t wait to drown her
sorrows in a big bottle of vodka.
    “You could’ve waited until we got to Ruby’s place. It’s just
a couple of miles up the road.” Kate shifted into reverse, looked in her
rearview mirror, and watched the cowboy jaywalk across the highway.
    “That wouldn’t be very polite, now would it? Introducing
myself and then immediately asking to use her facilities.” Deborah sniffed and
adjusted her silk blouse. “Besides, I doubt her restroom is any cleaner.”
    Kate sighed. “Mom, we talked about this already.”
    “What? That wasn’t an insult. It was just speculation.”
    “Quit splitting hairs. Why can’t you just keep an open mind
about this woman? She might actually be in love with Gramps.”
    “I seriously doubt that. She’s almost twenty years his
junior, you know.”
    “So you’ve said.” Over and over again. With her jaw
clenched, Kate rolled onto the highway.
    What had she been thinking when she volunteered to drive her
mother to the wedding? Deborah’s exaggerated fear of flying and night blindness
claim had played major roles in Kate’s self-imposed guilt trip. But after the
first few hours of her mom ranting constantly about Gramps’s fiancée, Claire’s
boyfriend, and Kate’s canceled engagement to the man Deborah had hand-picked,
Kate had made the steering wheel lopsided from squeezing it like a vice.
    She had a feeling that her mom was focusing extra hard on
what was wrong with everyone else’s life so that she didn’t have to think about
her own failures and the divorce papers she’d signed last week. Fortunately,
her mother didn’t know Kate had quit her job as a teacher last month, or she
would’ve been the only one roasting on the end of a stick for most of the miles.
    Hitting her blinker, Kate stopped at Jackrabbit Junction’s
only intersection. Off the side of the road, a billboard advertised the Dancing
Winnebagos R.V. Park.
    She idled, waiting for a semi to pass from the other
direction, and noticed the cowboy crossing a parking lot filled with a handful
of dusty cars and pickups in front of a cedar-planked building. The sign out
front read, THE SHAFT. Kate watched his long legs, chewing on her lower lip,
remembering how blue his eyes had been.
    “Kathryn! What are you waiting for?”
    Kate blinked and hit the gas.
    “You remind me of your father—speeding all of the time and
not paying attention to others on the road.”
    One more complaint about her driving from the woman next to
her and Kate was going to park the car and make her mother walk the last mile
to the R.V. park—pleated pants, Gianfranco Ferré pumps, pantyhose, and all.
With any luck, her mom would melt before reaching Ruby’s place and the wedding
would go off without a hitch.
    Silence broken only by the whir of the air conditioner
filled the car for the next several minutes.
    The need to escape her mother’s presence made Kate’s legs
ache, while giddiness at seeing her