Read Online Miracle on I-40 by Curtiss Ann Matlock - Free Book Online Page A

was shamed by her own six-year-old daughter.
    “Mr. Cooper, would you like a cookie?” Anna asked in a hesitant voice, her hand extending a cookie as far toward Cooper as she dared.
    Cooper’s eyes came round, glancing at Lacey and then quickly at Anna. “Thank you,” he said and took the cookie. His eyes went to the mirror, looking back at Anna. He almost smiled, Lacey was sure of it.
    When he’d finished the cookie, Lacey offered him a slice of the pecan pie. “It’s one of Gerald’s.”
    “You got that in that bag?” he asked with surprise.”
    Uh-huh. I cut it and wrapped each slice.” She was digging it out of the bag. She unwrapped it, set it on a paper towel and handed it across to him. He took it, a distinctly sheepish expression on his face.
    He liked sweets, Lacey thought. Highly pleased with the knowledge, she turned her face out the window. She had something to work with now. Call it a bribe, but she thought it more a way to build a bridge.
     
    Traveling Companions
     
    As Cooper had heard predicted, grey clouds closed in as the afternoon wore on. Reports came in from fellow truckers that north of them a storm was wreaking havoc, covering everything with a thick layer of ice and dumping snow in the mountains. It appeared the storm would stay to the north. Cooper hoped so.
    Though she sat up front in the cab, Lacey said little, and she didn’t have that friendly air she normally had. He guessed he couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t been exactly polite.
    But he didn’t think she’d had reason to say that she and the kids would return to Albuquerque by bus. If she thought that he was going to feel like the bad guy, she was mistaken. He was relieved. He was. But he was annoyed, too. He had put himself out for her, and he didn’t see that she had to go changing the plan.
    All of a sudden he came out with,“Watchin’ t.v.?”
    “What?”
    “The kids...they’re watchin’ t.v.?” He felt around for his pack of cigarettes and kept his gaze steadily on the road.
    “Yes. I think they’ll nap,” she replied. That was it, and keeping her gaze out the passenger window.
    Fine. He liked quiet. He glanced down at his cigarettes and then over at her. He put the pack back into his pocket and reached for a bottle of water instead.
    The next instant, he said. “You goin’ to see your folks in North Carolina for Christmas?” Damn. It was like there was some sort of short circuit to his mouth.
    “Yes.” She nodded and hardly seemed to be looking at him.
    Okay. He was not going to keep making an effort at conversation. He wasn’t any good at it anyway.
    Then she said, “The children have never met my parents. It’ sort of a homecoming. I haven’t been home since before Jon was born.”
    He glanced over to see a shy expression on her face. Her eyes met his for an instant, before they each looked away. Her eyes were very green, like rye grass in spring.
    “Ah...”
    And now inability to speak struck him. And he had the oddest sensation of being aware of her breasts gently moving as she breathed.
    “Cooper?”
    “Yeah?” Hey, okay, here she was talking to him.
    “Is Cooper your first name, your last, or what?”
    He felt a smile coming up and out. “You been wonderin’ about that, have you?”
    “Yes, I have.”
    “Barry B. Cooper is the name.”
    He sent her a lazy glance. Her green eyes met his.
    “Nice to meet you, Barry.”
    “Call me Cooper. I hate Barry.”
    Their eyes met again, and then each looked away out the windshield.
    * * * *
    “You like George Strait?”
    “Yes...I’d better at Gerald’s.”
    He chuckled, his grin a flash of bright, even teeth beneath his dark mustache. He slipped a compact disc into the player. They had made an unspoken truce and fallen into actual conversation. With George Strait’s voice in the background, they exchanged casual facts of their lives: Lacey had been divorced over five years—“Oh, yes, married only once,” and Cooper the same. “Once was