West of Nowhere Read online

  “I guess not, but I still wish Syd would get a girlfriend…and I wish it was you.”

  As much as it hurt to hear Madison’s wish, Joy knew deep down what it really meant was she wanted the two people she loved most to be with her all the time. She and Syd went to great lengths never to say anything negative about the other, but there wasn’t even a spark of love left between them.

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen, kiddo. But you’re lucky because you always have two homes where people love you like crazy.” She peeked at her check and dug a couple of ones out of her wallet for a tip. “I need to hit the road so I can get home to Grandpa Shep. Did you call him last night like I said?”

  “Yeah. He was grouchy, but he wanted me to come back and push him around till his shoulder got well.”

  “I bet he did. The nurses are probably ready to toss him out on the street.”

  Her father, wheelchair-bound after losing both legs in an accident over twenty years ago, had suffered a fall from his chair the day after she and Madison left Oakland on their way back to Virginia. With his arm out of commission following surgery to pin his shoulder, he had no way to get around on his own.

  “Will you be home tonight? I’ll call you from Kansas.”

  “Yeah, but it’s a school night and I have to go to bed at eight thirty.”

  “I pick up an hour going west so I’ll be sure to stop at a rest area before it gets too late. Love you.”

  “I love you too, Joy.”

  She blinked back tears as she walked to the cash register. Madison’s West Coast visit had been bliss, especially the last ten days, when they had driven across the country together, through the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Rocky Mountain National Park. The only thing that had dampened their trip was the knowledge it would end with dropping Madison off in Virginia, followed for Joy by a long, lonely ride home.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Joy said as she collected her change. Breakfast was a lot more fun at a picnic table with Madison, but it was nice once in a while to let someone else do the cooking and cleaning. However, the luxury of a restaurant breakfast had put her an hour behind schedule, which meant a long day of driving to Abilene, where she planned to camp for the night.

  The young woman she’d seen in the bathroom—from the Gus Holley group—was standing at the corner of the building, a suitcase and small dog at her side. Her eyes were trained on the overpass nearby as though she were expecting someone. Apparently, she wasn’t part of the band after all, just a woman who’d hitched a ride to Louisville.

  Joy had sent a text to her father asking him to call when he got up, and her phone rang as she was getting into her truck.

  Before she could even say hello, his gravelly voice barked, “How soon can you get here and bust me out of this hellhole?”

  “Who wants to know? You or the nurses?”

  “These jokers won’t let me do jack…they say I can’t get out of bed without the therapist here, but when he comes in, he makes me do everything in bed. I have to piss in a plastic jug, for Christ’s sake, and you don’t even want to know how they make me do the other. The food is pure crap. I ate better on Big John.” That said a lot, because her pop had complained as long as she could remember about the awful chow on the USS John F Kennedy.

  “I’m in Louisville right now, Pop. Looks like I’ll get in on Saturday, but that doesn’t leave a lot of time to figure out how we’re going to do this, because I have to be at work first thing Monday morning.”

  “Just get me out of here. I’ll figure it out from there.”

  Sometimes her father was too independent for his own good. From the day he arrived home from the VA hospital in a wheelchair, he’d been determined to have a life without limits, and without people fussing over him. Only rarely did he find himself at the mercy of others, and when he did, he bucked like a wild mustang with its first rider.

  “If I know you, you’ll try to pull yourself around with a bad shoulder and you’ll make it worse.” Although there was considerable risk to the staff at the rehab center if he stayed there much longer. “I looked at a few of those home health care services online last night. I’ll see if I can line up somebody, but you’ll have to stay where you are till I get it all set up. And whoever I get, you can’t be a jerk and run them off the first day.”

  “If it gets me out of this place, I promise to kiss their rosy red butt.”

  Her father’s accident would no doubt make all of them miserable for weeks. From what his doctor had said, he’d need a full-time companion to help him around the house, plus twice-weekly visits from a physical therapist. Joy could handle all the duties during the evenings but she’d need to hire someone to cover the hours she was at work. Whatever poor creature took the job would have to put up with her father’s aggravation over his loss of independence, and couldn’t possibly do anything to please him.

  “Has anyone been to see you? The guys from the Legion?”

  “They got their own problems. Barbara comes every day, though. I probably would have killed somebody by now if she hadn’t been here.”

  Joy chuckled at the mention of Barbara Rodgers, a longtime family friend who lived across the street. The loss of her husband Hank in an engine room explosion on the USS Midway had brought her close to all the Shepards, especially after the accident that disabled Joy’s father. She was practically family and Joy even wondered if romance might blossom one day between Barbara and her pop now that her mother was gone. It was weird to think about him being with someone else, yet comforting that he might find happiness again.

  “I’ll make some calls tonight and see what I can do. Try not to drive everyone there to drink.”

  Joy reluctantly acknowledged she’d be tied to the house every night until her father was back to his old self. Though he’d insisted he could manage on his own, she knew that was his pride talking. He’d said the same thing when her mother got sick three years ago, but he was visibly relieved when Joy left the navy to return to Oakland to help him manage her declining health.

  A silver lining—if there was such a thing—was that getting her father rehabbed might make the time pass more quickly until Madison’s return for the Christmas holidays.

  She turned the ignition and waited to be sure all her gauges were working correctly, a habit from her navy days, when she tested and calibrated her communications equipment before each use. On the busy deck of an aircraft carrier, there was no margin for error.

  As she eased from her parking space, she was startled by the sudden appearance of the young woman with the dog waving her down.

  Chapter Two

  “Are you okay?”

  A closer look revealed the young woman had been crying. “I lost my ride. I was wondering…could I maybe use your phone to make a quick call? I promise I won’t use a bunch of your minutes.”

  Joy was smart enough to be cautious about scams, but she also knew distress when she saw it. This woman—barely more than a girl, actually—was in trouble and was taking a risk of her own by reaching out to a stranger. Turning her down meant leaving her at the mercy of someone who might take advantage of her. She passed her phone through the window. “Whatever you need.”

  Before she dialed, the woman lit a cigarette, its smoke wafting through the open window. Too late, Joy realized the phone had connected automatically to the wireless device in her truck, which meant she could hear every word.

  “Corey, what are you doing?”

  “Go home to Shelbyville, Amber. You’re only fifteen miles away. You just aren’t going to make it on your own.”

  “I told you I didn’t ever want to see them again. You always said you understood that. It gives me nightmares just to think about it. Come on back and pick me up.”

  “Can’t do it.” He sighed heavily. “It’s over for us. It’s not anything you did…it’s just not working out anymore. I thought this would be a nice clean break.”

  Amber, clearly flustered, slapped her hand against t
he side of the camper. “Look, Corey. If this is about you and me, fine. I’ll get my own place to live when we get back to Nashville, but you guys still need me to sell merchandise. I’ll sleep on the bus.”

  “Gus already has a vendor to handle the merchandise. It’s the same company he uses all the time.”

  “Are you telling me this whole thing was a setup?” Her voice was quivering and her cheeks red. “You couldn’t just break up with me like a normal person? No, you had to haul me all the way out here and dump me on the side of the road?”

  “You’re not on the side of the road. Just call your folks. They’re fifteen minutes away. Your mom’s waiting to hear from you.”

  “You called her?”

  “Amber, I’m not a bad guy. I wasn’t going to just kick you out and make you sleep in the bus station. I wanted to be sure you—”

  The line went dead.

  In her side-view mirror, Joy could see Amber leaning against the camper, her arms at her sides and her face skyward with her eyes closed. She knew that feeling, the blunt realization that the faith you had in someone was poorly placed. Though eager to get back on the road, she could spare a few minutes for this girl to get her senses back and decide what she needed to do.

  She was too thin, Joy thought, and wore too much color in her eye makeup, blush and lipstick. Her right shoulder blade sported a tattoo of what looked like a bass guitar.

  “One more call?”

  “Of course.” There was no way she could avoid listening without letting on that she’d heard the entirety of the first call.

  “Harmony…it’s me, Amber. Look, it didn’t work out for me going on the tour and I need to get back to Nashville. Is there any way I can get my job back at the daycare?”

  The woman on the other end groaned. “Listen, girl. I can’t take you back. Wayne says Corey wants a clean break, you know?”

  “Corey doesn’t have anything to do with any of this. I’m not even going to see him anymore. I just need a job…and a place to stay for a couple of weeks until I can get settled somewhere else.”

  “I can’t do it, Amber. I wish I could, but Wayne and Corey…they’re the band. You know how it is. Everything’s always about what’s best for the band. Sorry, kid.”

  Amber cut off the call and slumped again against the camper for a few seconds. As if suddenly remembering she wasn’t alone, she straightened up and returned to the driver’s window with the phone. “Thanks.”

  Joy watched as she flicked her cigarette butt to the ground and walked back to the building where her tiny dog began dancing with excitement. She drew the pup into her lap as she sat forlornly on her suitcase. If those calls were any indication, the poor girl had no choice but to call her family, who happened to live nearby. At least Corey—whoever he was—had made it seem like it would be okay.

  She started to pull out and realized Amber was sobbing. Dropping her off somewhere would probably eat up an hour of her day, but Joy knew she’d never sleep tonight if she went to bed worrying about how this turned out.

  “You need a lift somewhere?”

  The girl shook her head. “I don’t know where I’d go.”

  With the engine still running, Joy walked around and opened the passenger door. “Hop in. We’ll figure it out.”

  Amber hesitated for a few seconds but stood, which enabled Joy to grab her suitcase and toss it in the crew cab behind the front seat. “Which way are you going?”

  “I’m headed west on I-64, but I can drop you off wherever you need to go. I’m sure there’s a bus station around here, and if you need some help with a ticket, I can spare a few bucks.” Joy climbed in on her side and buckled her seat belt, signaling to Amber to do the same.

  “Are you going anywhere near a place called Limon, Colorado?”

  “Colorado?”

  “I have a friend there. I can stay with her while I look for a job.”

  She hadn’t figured her friendly gesture would result in a rider for the next two days. “Did I hear you say you had family near here?”

  “I’m not going back there…not ever. I’ve got some money to help pay for gas. If it’s too much trouble, I’m sure I’ll find somebody else going that way.” She started to unbuckle her belt.

  “No…no, that’s okay.” A girl as desperate as this one would probably get into a car with anyone, and it might not be safe. “I’ll be passing through Limon sometime tomorrow afternoon. You’re welcome to ride.”

  The relief on Amber’s face was unmistakable. “I’m Amber…Amber Halliday.”

  “Joy Shepard. Who’s your friend?” The black and tan pup, about half the size of a typical cat, cowered in Amber’s lap, terrified either of Joy or the truck.

  “Skippy. He’s part Chihuahua. I got him last year at the shelter in Nashville.”

  She reached out to give him a pet, prompting a low growl that made her pull her hand back in a hurry. It was going to be a long day.

  * * *

  “…I’m a ground crew chief at the airport in Oakland. You know, one of those people in the orange vests who guides the planes into the gate and makes sure they get serviced.”

  Amber nodded along, though she had no idea what Joy was talking about. She’d never been on a plane in her life. “And you’re what, on vacation?”

  “Yeah, sort of. My goddaughter Madison—she’s nine—she flew out to California a few weeks ago to visit my pop and me. I took her back to her home near Norfolk and we had a nice camping trip along the way…went to Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, then through the Rockies.”

  “Norfolk…that’s in North Carolina, right?”

  “Virginia.”

  Amber had never been much for geography. Like most other subjects in high school, she couldn’t imagine why she’d ever need it. All those lessons about map reading were unnecessary when you had a GPS on your phone telling you everywhere to turn.

  Just about everyone she knew in Nashville drove a pickup truck, but none were as nice as this one, with its camper shell attached. It had tan leather seats with wood trim on the dashboard, a wide-screen navigation system, CD player and satellite radio, and touch controls for everything on the steering wheel.

  “Nice truck…lots of fancy stuff.”

  “Thanks. Technically, it belongs to my pop, but he never drives it anymore. He bought it about four years ago when my mom got sick so they could take a few trips together. She died not long after that and…well, he and I get along just fine most of the time, but not well enough to spend time together in a pillbox like this.”

  California women were nothing like the ones Amber knew in Tennessee and Kentucky. In the first place, she didn’t know a single one who would just pick up and drive all the way across the country by herself. Practically all her friends had boyfriends or husbands, and it was the guys who went off and did crap like that.

  In the second place, she looked strong and physically fit, with muscles in her arms and legs. Her appearance was meticulous, like she’d gone out of her way to make every single detail perfect. Her bright yellow T-shirt, with a pocket logo that read Big Stick, was tucked into her shorts. Both had obviously been ironed.

  Ironed! Who ironed shorts and T-shirts?

  Joy’s obsession with neatness extended well beyond picking up paper towels in the restroom. There wasn’t a speck of dust on the dashboard or even a smudge on the windshield.

  “What sort of work do you do, Amber?”

  Amber sighed, wishing she could have another cigarette. “A little of this, a little of that. My last job was at a daycare. Before that I worked at the Friendly Mart…that’s a convenience store in Nashville, but don’t be fooled by the name. The owner’s an asshole. I’ve flipped hamburgers, made tacos, sold vitamins over the phone…sat with old people. I would have liked doing the merchandising for Gus Holley, but that was all one big joke on me.”

  “That’s a lousy way to treat somebody. I’m sorry they did that to you.”

  “You know what they say…lay dow
n with dogs and get fleas.” She was accustomed to disappointment. All those jobs she’d mentioned had ended with her being fired or quitting because she couldn’t work under ridiculous conditions with bosses who yelled at her all the time for no reason. She would have done great work for Gus if only he’d given her a chance.

  “So you know Gus Holley? My goddaughter tells me he’s a pretty big name in country music.”

  “Yeah, he’s a nice guy…a lot better than those jerkoffs in his band. I bet he’ll be pissed when he hears what Corey did to me.”

  She was tired of thinking about Corey and turned her thoughts to Molly, one of the first friends she’d made in Nashville after splitting up with Archie, her boyfriend from high school. She and Molly had shared an apartment with two other girls for about a year, during which Amber discovered she liked sleeping with women a lot more than with men. Though they’d kept it casual—not to mention secret—she’d been disappointed when Molly left suddenly to take a desk clerk job at her cousin’s motel in Limon. She’d even toyed with moving out there when Molly said there was a job cleaning rooms, but by that time she’d started seeing Corey and it just seemed easier to stay put.

  They passed a sign for a rest area and Amber decided she could wait no longer for a cigarette. “Can we stop here?”

  She went first to the restroom and then used the time walking Skippy to smoke. From the hillside above the parking lot, she watched as Joy took a cloth and cleaned both the windshield and headlights before wiping down the truck’s grill. She’d never seen someone so finicky about a stupid pickup truck.

  Joy met her at the passenger door with a plastic bag. “Here, I thought you might need this to clean up after Skippy.”

  Amber stuffed it in her pocket. “He didn’t do anything this time.” Actually he had, but she had no intention of marching back up the hill to pick up dog shit. Just because Joy was obsessive-compulsive didn’t mean she had to be. A few germs here and there were supposed to be good for you, helping ward off colds or the flu.