Lost Highways (A Valentine Novel) Read Online Free Page A

and it won’t be my fault.”
    He put his paws up on the side, cocking his head to the side.
    She was startled to see the guy from the Cadillac striding toward her. A big man with a bulging belly, he yelled, “Look, lady, do you want me to get in and move this truck for you? I ain’t got all night.”
    The puppy barked his young bark fiercely at the man.
    “I’m sorry to have failed to see you are the only one with a life,” she said, and then hopped into her truck, halfway expecting the guy to grab her by the collar and yank her out, which she believed he could have done with one hand.
    Slamming the door, she again shifted into drive and started off slowly, mindful of Lulu and not wanting to give the Cadillac guy the idea he had compelled her into hurrying. Circling toward the road, she checked her mirror to see if the puppy jumped out. She felt certain the Cadillac guy would run him down if possible.
    Then she saw the puppy’s face in the side-view mirror. He was up on the side of the truck and happily jutting his face in the wind. His paws indicated a really big dog to come.
    Looking north, she saw the road sign that listed Abilene as being 152 miles ahead. She pressed the accelerator, and the old truck and trailer rumbled out onto the blacktopped state highway.
    The puppy tapped on the back window glass. He wagged his entire rear end at her.
    Sighing, she looked ahead. On her left, the sky reflected the last coral rays of the sun, and on her right, a bright half-moon was rising. It seemed as if she were driving in a corridor betweenthem. As if she were going right up a launching ramp. And she had an odd feeling, as if something were pressing between her shoulder blades, urging her onward.
    Shrugging the sensation aside, she thought that she would definitely have to get rid of the puppy. Maybe she would drop him in the first town. Or maybe in Abilene, which would likely be big enough for her to get away unnoticed. She would drop him there in the first yard she passed with a house with lights on.
    As she stuck a George Strait cassette into the player, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She thought maybe she should have refreshed her lipstick, but then her eyes strayed to the grocery sack of snacks. Digging inside, she pulled out a package of peanuts.
    It was good and dark, and she was on her second George Strait cassette and opening her second Twinkie cake, having polished off the entire package of peanuts, when her headlights flashed on a figure at the edge of the road.
    A man, in a dark sport coat and slacks.
    It happened so fast. She saw the figure illuminated by the headlights, his pale profile turn to her, and then she glimpsed him blow away like a paper silhouette into the darkness.
    Oh, Lord . The awful knowledge that she had not been paying sufficient attention fell all over her.
    Oh, God…ohmyGod, don’t let me have hit him .
    Her headlights beamed on the blacktop ahead, as her mind did an instant replay. She thought that surely she hadn’t hit the man. She hadn’t been that close. She hadn’t felt anything like a whop.
    Maybe there hadn’t been a man. Maybe it had all been her imagination.
    This possibility was as unnerving as thinking she’d run someone down.
    All the while her mind was dealing with this, she was pressing the brakes, mindful of Lulu back in the trailer sucking the flooring with her hooves. Coming to a stop, she tried to see the man in the side-view mirror, but even in the moonlight, it was too dark to make out anything.
    Of course, if he were dead on the side of the road, she wouldn’t see him standing.
    A thump made her just about jump out of her skin.
    It was the puppy with his big paws on the rear window glass.
    She swung the truck and trailer around as quickly as she dared, mindful of Lulu. Texas had really good state and county roads, paid for with all the oil money in the seventies and eighties. They all had wide graveled shoulders. Her tires crunched on the