Page 7 of Home on the Road (Trucker Love #2)

Sitting at the kitchen table, Ziggy stared at his phone as if it were a deadly scorpion. He knew he needed to turn it on, but he was scared of what was waiting for him when he did.

It had been three days since he’d turned it off, three days since he’d walked away from his job, the diner, and his stepmonster to join Harry in his truck. Three days into the twenty-eight days of celibacy.

He and Harry had spent those days cleaning the truck, inside and out, doing maintenance and getting the truck ready to go back out at the end of the week, washing clothes, and watching sports on the huge flatscreen television that covered one wall in the living room. The only thing that would make this time off perfect would be if he were sleeping in Harry’s bed after sex each night.

“Ziggy, you okay?” Harry asked as he came through the back door into the kitchen.

He wasn’t, but he did not want to tell Harry why. He needed to be doing something other than waiting in dread for his stepmonster to show up and drag him back to the hell his life had been.

“I’m okay.”

“Have you turned it on yet?”

“Not yet.”

He was being silly. Just because he turned his phone on, he could delete her texts and messages without reading or listening to them. He could block Terry’s number so she was never able to contact him again. But he doubted that would stop her.

He did want to check in with Sally Jo about how things were going, so he took a deep breath and turned his phone on. For the next two minutes, the phone vibrated and rang out with sounds of dozens of texts and phone messages being delivered.

“Shit,” Harry breathed as he poured himself another cup of coffee. “She doesn’t give up, does she?”

Ziggy looked at the screen and shook his head. “Nope, she doesn’t. She’s a crazy bitch.”

Before starting to look at the messages, he went into his contact list and blocked then deleted her phone number. Then he went into his email, where there were also dozens of messages from her, and deleted and blocked her there as well. Then he deleted all the messages and texts from her.

When he finished, only three voice messages and a half dozen texts were left, all from Sally Jo.

He read the texts first, answering the questions about where things could be found, ordering processes, and where his recipe book was. After listening to the messages, he called her, knowing she was not yet at work.

“Ziggy, are you all right?” Sally Jo answered on the first ring.

“I’m fine. Sorry I haven’t answered before, but I just turned my phone back on,” Ziggy said as he stood and began to pace back and forth across the kitchen.

“Probably a good idea,” Sally Jo said. “Have you blocked her yet?”

“Yeah. Deleted and blocked her sixty-nine voice mails and ninety-three texts without even listening or looking. My advice for you is to find a new job and move on. Let her figure it out herself.”

“I would, but you know there’s nothing else around here for a girl like me. And Tony has already banned her from coming into the diner. And he’s already hired a second cook, and two dishwashers. We’re doing great, though she stands outside at shift change and tries to get me to tell her where you are. Since I don’t know who you left with, I tell her every day that I don’t know and haven’t talked to you. And I’ll keep telling her that until she stops asking.”

“Thanks, Sally Jo. Call or text if you have any other questions. I promise it won’t take three days to answer from now on.”

After hanging up, he looked around the kitchen and then at Harry who was watching him without trying to be too nosy.

“Would it be all right if I made some cookies?”

****

The question took Harry totally by surprise. “You want to cook? After all the cooking you’ve done over the past six months, you want to make cookies?”

“Making cookies isn’t work. Cookies are fun. And much yummier than the store-bought cookies in the pantry.”

Harry looked at the man he was falling in love with and grinned. “Z-man, if you really want to make cookies, go ahead. I will never say no to homemade anything. But just so you know, my favorite cookies are chocolate chip, and Sam’s is a spice cookie our mom used to make. I think the recipe is in the cookbook in the pantry.”

“What about Brogan?”

Harry thought a moment. “Oatmeal raisin. I’m not sure about Shepherd, but that’s okay. They won’t be back here for a couple weeks so you don’t have to worry about making any for them.”

Ziggy’s laughter had him joining in.

“Let me look in the pantry and see what you have ingredients for,” the smaller man stood.

“We can go to the grocery store for whatever you need. We need to get you some more clothes, too. And maybe have lunch in town.” Harry offered, not wanting Ziggy to think he was a hermit when he was not on the road, even though he was for the most part.

Ziggy gave him a smile that said he was cute for pushing, but Harry did not care. Fresh homemade cookies were something he missed most, and the so-called fresh baked ones at fast food restaurants just were not the same.

“Let me look in the pantry and make a shopping list,” Ziggy said as he grabbed his phone and headed to the pantry.

“Okay. And I’ll see if Sam needs anything from town,” Harry said, for the moment feeling at loose ends and not sure what to do with himself. Usually by this point in his layoff week, he would be shopping for new books to read on his tablet in the evenings, and finding new podcasts, videos, and audiobooks to listen to as he drove.

Harry loved his brothers, and having the house to hang out at during his breaks, but felt more at home on the road. He could not wait to see how he and Ziggy did as a team as they delivered truckloads of goods around the country. He really could not wait until their next break when he could finally do more to Ziggy than watch him, talk to him, and dream filthy dreams about him.

He could not wait to take their relationship to the next level.