Page 33 of Risk of a Lifetime
Looking back, that had been the worst mistake of her life. Some things you couldn’t change, though, and their separation was one of them. Not then. Not now. They didn’t even really know each other anymore.
“Don’t think I’m defending JB.” Betsy hung her arm outside and fought the breeze with her hand. “But you asked for a divorce when you sent the papers. What if he’s remarried?”
“He didn’t.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“Not in so many words. But I know I’m why he came back to town.”
She knew his walk and the way he steered his truck and how his eyes looked right before he reached for her. Since his dad died, he didn’t have any other family around town but her. So why else would he have made the trip? He could have settled the paperwork long distance…
“Making a lot of assumptions aren’t you?” Betsy straightened in her seat, tugging her seatbelt into place. “He told me he came to settle his dad’s estate. That and nothing else.”
Marcy didn’t bother to answer. In fact, she was a little worried. He’d been nothing but the perfect gentleman since he got to town. And that kiss on the cheek before they drove away…what was that? Nothing but a simple little peck a person would give to a friend. Maybe that was all she was to him now. A friend. Someone you watch out for. Someone you give a peck on the cheek.
Heck, he hadn’t even tried anything when they were in bed together last night.
“Hey, slow down.” Betsy grabbed her arm rest as they rounded a curve.
“The speedometer says I’m doing forty-five. That can’t be right.” Marcy’d been so intent on rationalizing herself and JB, she hadn’t noticed the gaining momentum of the car. She clenched the wheel as she pressed on the brake. The car didn’t slow. Pressed again, and the pedal went to the floor bed. “Oh, my gosh. No brakes.”
“Down shift. Down shift.” Betsy gripped the window brace.
“I did. Nothing’s happening.”
The road ahead ran the rim of the lake, beautiful and breathtaking…except not now. Marcy visualized the steep hill interrupted only by twists and turns as it snaked down to a four-way stop at the bottom. Blind side-road entrances. Blind curves. She cringed. The dilly-dip of a couple of small hills. And finally what the kids called “dead-man’s curve” loomed on the final stretch. If she couldn’t slow down, they’d careen off the side of the hill. Best case scenario, they’d end up in the water. Worst case, they’d smash in to the boulders alongside the lake. Explode and burst into flames.
Marcy gripped the wheel tighter. “Call JB.”
Betsy reached for her sister’s phone, but his ringtone cut through the air before she could dial. She pressed speaker.
“What the hell are you trying to do? Slow down.” JB growled.
The urgency in his voice somehow calmed Marcy. He was nearby. “No brakes. We don’t have brakes.”
“Down shift.” She glanced in her rearview mirror, saw him pull up right behind her.
“Nothing happens!” She’d never get to tell him how much she— “JB!”
…
JB watched an oncoming vehicle hug the edge of the road to stay out of Marcy’s way. Her tires spit gravel as she veered onto the right shoulder. One wrong skid, and she’d be over the side of the drop-off. He gripped his steering wheel and synced with her on the swerves.
“I keep hitting the brakes, but nothing happens.” Marcy sounded lost. “What should I do?”
“Pull the emergency brake.”
“Nothing.”
Someone must have tampered with her car. Might be suicide on his part to venture into the oncoming lane, but better his than hers. “Try to stay in the right lane so I can come up alongside you.”
“What about traffic? You could get hit.”
“I’ll be okay. They got the other shoulder to run off on.” At least he hoped like hell they would.
“What about semis?”
The road was usually loaded with trucks this time of day. If one of them came around a blind corner, it would roll over JB’s vehicle like a bump in the road. “Do what I said, Marcy.”
