The Last of the American Cowgirls

She was still asleep when I got back to the truck, so I had my sweet roll and coffee sitting in the driver's seat. I used my phone to check on another load from Dallas, but didn't find anything that interested me. When my half-hour was up, I logged the break and then pulled back onto I-40. Three hours later, I left Nashville behind me on the way to Memphis.

My hours were running out as I approached Jackson. There's a Love's there I've used before, so I pulled in and parked the rig. I'd park here until about six that night and then start driving again. The downtime was a little longer than it had to be, but I wanted to have some time to talk with Janet.

I'd just pulled into a parking spot when she pulled back the curtain and walked into the cab.

"What time is it?"

"A little after seven. Are you hungry?"

Janet grinned.

"I only had a sandwich at six last night. I'm starved."

We walked down to the Denny's for breakfast. Sausage, eggs, and pancakes fixed Janet's hunger as well as mine. It was kind of nice having her there in some ways. Unless I know another trucker, I usually don't talk much to anybody. It was easy to talk with Janet.

Janet tried to pay her share of the check, and I finally relented and let her. After that, we walked back to my truck. As I was unlocking the door, she asked what we would be doing now. I laughed.

"Well, while you were asleep I drove this rig all night. I'm gonna sack out until sometime this afternoon. As for what you're going to do, that's up to you. There's a convenience store in the building and they have private showers. The shower would cost you around fourteen dollars, but I have enough fuel credits to pay for one if you want a shower. They have towels, soap, and shampoo. I'd buy a pair of flip-flops to wear if you decide to take a shower."

Janet smiled.

"I'll have to go look at the showers first. Maybe after you wake up, I'll take one...if they're clean."

"They usually are clean, but check for yourself. I won't be up for lunch, but the convenience store has food, there's a burger place down the street, and there's always Denny's again.

"I'll leave my laptop on the center console so you can use it if you want. I'll sign it on to the local wi-fi network before I hit the sack. I'll also leave you my phone if you want to call somebody. If you decide to take a walk, be sure to lock up the truck. I'll give you my spare key so you can get back in the truck if you leave. Once I wake up, we need to talk about what you're going to do going forward."

After I got my laptop signed on to the truck stop wi-fi network and gave Janet the password to my phone and a spare key, I pulled the curtain on the sleeper, stripped down to my underwear and climbed between the sheets. When I put my face down on he pillow, I raised up because of the unfamiliar odor. Then I smiled. It was Janet's perfume.

I woke up about three and got up and dressed. When I pulled the curtain back, Janet was sitting in the driver's seat with her hands on the wheel and looking out the front. I chuckled.

"Thinking of taking the wheel on the way to Little Rock?"

She blushed.

"I just wanted to see what it felt like."

"Well, how's it feel?"

Janet laughed.

"Like I'm driving a house. This thing is huge."

"So is that all you did while I was asleep?"

"No. I looked at the showers and they're clean like you said, but I think I'll wait. I went shopping at the convenience store, but I didn't buy anything. Their stuff is pretty expensive. Then I had a salad from the convenience store for lunch."

Janet frowned then.

"I used your phone to call my mother to tell her I was all right and not to worry. Greg, that's my boyfriend, went to their house this morning to find out where I was. She said she didn't know and said he called her a liar. Then he started swearing at her. My dad had to threaten to call the Sheriff to get him to leave, and he broke their screen door when he did. See why I can't go back there?"

"Janet, how in the world did you ever hook up with this guy?"

"I'm a widow, Jack. My husband was ten years older than I, and he had a heart attack. He had really good life insurance through his company, so I really didn't have to work for a while after he died, but it was boring sitting at home and I was lonely. I don't have a college degree, and I didn't want to be a cashier at some store, so I applied at Denny's. It was fun being busy all the time and meeting all the people.

"Greg came in one night and I waited on him. He was great then, good looking, polite, gave me compliments, all that stuff women dream about. He kept coming back and always sat at one of my tables. A month later he asked me out, and he was the same then. Six months later, I asked him to move in with me. That's when it all started. It was like now that he had me, he thought he could control everything I did and thought.

"He never took me anywhere. He said he didn't want me looking at other men. He did let me work, but I couldn't ever tell him about anything that happened there because it would make him mad. He didn't hit me at first. He just made me feel like I was stupid.

The hitting started a couple months later. I forgot and told him about a really nice man who came to the restaurant and it made him mad that I'd remembered another man. That's when he hit me the first time. After that, anything I did that he thought was wrong, he hit me again. He never hit me anywhere it would show. He was too smart for that. He'd just punch me in the stomach or back or he'd kick my bottom."

"Why didn't you go to the police?"

Janet sighed.

"Greg's uncle is the county sheriff, and my house is in the county not in Graham. He wouldn't have done anything. The only way out was for me to run away before my dad hurt Greg like he threatened to do a couple of times. I couldn't let Dad do that. Greg's uncle would have arrested him."

"So where does that leave you now?"

She sighed again.

"I don't know yet. I spent most of the afternoon thinking about it, and I still don't know. I could make Greg get out of my house, but I couldn't live there as long as he was still around and he'd never leave Graham. His whole family lives in Graham and he works for his dad there. The best answer I came up with was to sell the house so he'd have to leave it, and then take the money and move somewhere else."

Janet looked up at me.

"I was thinking maybe Dallas is far enough away that he couldn't find me. Could I just keep riding with you until we get there?"

Answering her took some thinking on my part. Some of my reservations were based on my liability insurance coverage. My policy plainly states that I can't transport people unless they're on a rider to my policy. Since Janet wasn't, if I was involved in any type of accident, my insurance company wouldn't cover any costs. That wasn't likely, but you never know.

The other reservation was that I was starting to like having her there. It was a new feeling for me. Since my divorce, I'd shied away from women. My ex had seemed to be everything I wanted in a woman, and at first, she thought I was the man for her. We'd been married for two years before she started sleeping with another man when I was on the road. I couldn't really blame her because she was alone so much of the time, but it still hurt. We both agreed divorce was the best answer, but I didn't want to go through that again.

Janet's voice shook me out of my thoughts.

"I take it since you're not saying yes, that means I can't."

I couldn't say no to the pleading look on her face.

"OK, you can stay with me until we get to Dallas, but you need to have a plan by then."

Janet smiled.

"I know I'm asking a lot, and I do appreciate it. I hate asking you to do more for me, but is there anywhere close I could get some different clothes? The convenience store doesn't sell anything but shirts."

My navigation system said there was a Walmart a couple of miles from the truck stop, and it was in the right direction. I said we should eat first and then I'd take her there. We had dinner at the same Denny's and then I checked the truck over again. At six thirty, I pulled into the Walmart parking log and parked beside a Kennworth with a reefer on the back. Janet said she wouldn't be long.

"Not long" turned into forty five minutes, and when she came out, Janet was carrying four bags of stuff. She climbed up into the cab, grinned, and said she had everything she needed. I started the Mack while Janet went into the sleeper and changed clothes. Ten minutes later, we were rolling down I-40 again with Janet buckled into the other seat.

The loose black pants and black top she'd worn at the restaurant weren't sexy at all. What she'd picked out at Walmart was. The jeans hugged the curves of a very sensuous ass, and the tight knit top molded itself to her breasts like a second skin. Her bra wasn't doing anything to hold those breasts tight either. They swayed or bounced with every movement of the truck. She grinned when she saw me looking at her.

"I thought you might like this better than my waitress uniform. I hope you do."

"Oh, well...yes, you look a lot better now."

"Better how?"

That's the question my ex always used to ask, and I never got the answer right.

"Well...you have a nice figure and it shows."

"Just nice? I was trying for at least a little sexy."

"OK, I'll say it. You look sexy."

"You're just saying that to make me happy, aren't you?"

"No, you are sexy. Now stop talking about being sexy and let me drive."

It was a little after eleven when I saw Janet squirming in her seat. I asked what was the matter.

"I know you don't want to stop, but I really need to use a restroom."

I looked at my fuel gauges. The tanks were about half full. I didn't need to fill up, but I figured as long as I had to stop, I might as well. I handed Janet my phone.

"Pull up the browser and type in 'findfuelstops.com', all one word."

A few seconds later she said, "OK, got it."

"Now find where it says find truck stops by interstate."

"OK, did that. Now what?"

"Find I-40"

"OK."

"Now scroll down until you find North Little Rock. That's about where we are."

I saw her moving her index finger and then stop.

"There's five."

"There should be prices out to the side. Which one is cheapest?"

"Uh...that would be Love's at exit 161. It's the cheapest."

"Then that's where we'll go. You can use the restroom while I fill up."

About fifteen minutes after we'd left the truck stop behind and were driving towards Texarkana I saw the flashing blue lights of two police cars behind me. I hadn't been pushing the speed limit, so I had no idea what they wanted, but since I was the only vehicle within a mile either way, it had to be me. I slowed down and pulled over to the shoulder and then stopped and turned on the emergency flashers. I got worried when I looked at the mirror and saw an officer approaching with his pistol drawn.

He yelled, "Open your window and put your hands on the outside of the truck."

Janet sounded worried too.

"You better do what he says. There's another one coming up on this side and he's got his gun out."

I'd just gotten the window down and put my hands on the side of the truck when another car pulled up in front of me. Another officer got out, drew his pistol, and slowly walked up to my truck.

The first officer then yelled, "Open the door from the outside and get out."

As slowly and as carefully as I could, I did exactly what he said. Once I had both feet on the ground, he yelled at me to get face down on the pavement. A few seconds after I did, he put his knee in my back, pulled both arms behind me and cuffed me.

He pulled me up so I was sitting then and I was relieved when the others holstered their pistols. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an officer putting Janet into the car in front of the truck. The officer pulled me up again and started walking me to the first car in the rear. I asked why he'd stopped me.

"There's a North Carolina warrant out on you for kidnapping."

"Officer, there has got to be some mistake here. I didn't kidnap anybody."

He grinned.

"I suppose the woman in your truck just came along for the ride."

"Well, as a matter of fact, she did. She was riding behind my cab until another trucker told me she was there. I put her in the cab then."

"You can tell all that to the detectives at the station."

He opened the door of the police cruiser, turned me around, and pushed me in ass first, then got in the front seat. He was fastening his seat belt when the officer from the car with Janet inside came trotting down the side of my truck and waving. Both of the officers in the cruisers behind the truck got out and left me sitting there. I couldn't hear what the three said, but a couple minutes later, the first officer opened the rear door.

"If the woman in your truck did what you said, did she tell you why?"

"Yes. She was running away from her boyfriend. Apparently he likes to hit her when he thinks she's done something wrong. She said she had to get away from him before her dad hurt him. I gather the dad had threatened to do that."

"Did she try to make contact with anybody while she was in your truck?"

"I wasn't there, but she said she used my cell phone to call her mother to tell her she was all right."

"Did she tell you anything else about the call?"

"Well, she said her mother told her the boyfriend came to her house and asked where Janet was. I guess he got mad when she said she didn't know and broke their screen door when he left."

"Can I look at your cell phone? You don't have to let me, but I can get a warrant if you don't."

"Sure you can. It's on the dash of my truck. The password is 'blackmac'.

The officer got back out, closed the door, and walked back to the cab of my truck. He came back with my cell phone. A few minutes more conversation between the three followed. Then, the first officer opened the rear door again.

"You say this boyfriend's name was Greg?"

I shrugged.

"That's what Janet told me."

"Do you have a last name?"

"No, but it'll be the same as the Sheriff of the county where Graham is located. Janet said the Sheriff is Greg's uncle."

"OK, you both have the same story, so it doesn't look to us like you kidnapped the woman, but I can't just let you go with a warrant outstanding. I'm going to have you follow me to the station with your truck. We'll get this cleared up there. I'm trusting you, so don't try anything on me."

The time at the police station in Little Rock was an experience I don't want to repeat. The officer put Janet and I in separate interrogation rooms and a detective asked me all the same questions again. After what seemed like forever, the same detective came back to the room and explained what had happened.

"Apparently, this boyfriend is a real case and his uncle is almost as bad. After the boyfriend left Janet's mother's house, he went to his uncle, the County Sheriff, and said he thought Janet had been kidnapped. The Sheriff went to the restaurant and talked with some of the people there. One of them said she saw Janet get into your truck but didn't see her get out because she got busy with a customer. He asked her for a description of your truck and she gave it to him. Once he had a description of your truck, he reported the supposed kidnapping to NCIS who relayed it to law enforcement across the US.

We sent the North Carolina Highway Patrol out to talk with the witness. She said she had seen Janet get into your truck and told the Sheriff she hadn't seen her get out because she was busy with customers. She said she told the Sheriff that one of the dishwashers was taking a smoke break at the time and might have seen something, but he didn't seem interested in hearing anything except what the truck looked like.

"They talked to the dishwasher who said Janet did get out and go back inside the restaurant, but came out the back door a minute later. She said she probably wouldn't be seeing him for a while and walked off to where the trucks park. We asked Janet about that conversation and she verified it.

"I talked with Janet's mother and father about ten minutes ago, and they verified Janet's story about the boyfriend and the phone call. It looks to us like the boyfriend wanted to cause Janet some grief, and the North Carolina Highway Patrol agree with our conclusion. Once they talked with the Sheriff, he agreed as well, and cancelled the warrant, so both of you are free to go.

"The Sheriff indicated the boyfriend will be charged with filing a false police report. It's just a misdemeanor in North Carolina, so he'll probably just get a fine and maybe six months. The Sheriff isn't guilty of anything except sloppy investigation, so unfortunately, he can't be charged with anything. That irritates me. Law enforcement doesn't need people like him behind a badge.

"I apologize for putting you two through all this. I hope you can understand we really didn't have any choice."

I said I did understand. When he let me out of the interrogation room, Janet was standing there waiting for me. She ran up and put her arms around me.

"Jack, I'm so sorry I cause this to happen."

I gently pushed her back a little.

"You didn't cause it. Your crazy boyfriend did."

"I know, but I still feel responsible."

"Well, you're not. Now, you ready to go to Dallas or are you going to keep standing here and apologizing?"

All told, I'd lost four and a half hours with the Arkansas State Police, so it was almost five by the time I got back on I-30. It was good to be on my way again, but I was more tired than if I'd driven all those hours. At six in the morning, I drove the rig into a Flying J just outside of Arkadelphia and parked it. Janet was still sitting in the other seat and asked why we were stopping.

"We're stopping because I'm bushed and need some rest or I'll run this rig off the road somewhere."

"Yeah, I'm tired too."

"Well, you take the bed, and I'll do what truckers did before sleepers."

"What's that?"

"I'll sit in the seat and lean over the steering wheel."

Janet shook her head.

"Oh no, I'm not going to be the cause of you not getting a good night's sleep. You'll have a wreck. You need to sleep in the bed."

"Then what'll you do?"

"The bed is wide enough for two if we don't move around too much."

"Janet, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not? It's not like we're two teenagers in the back seat of a car. We're both adults."

"Yes, but...Well, I haven't slept with a woman in a long time."

"And that's all we'll be doing, isn't it -- sleeping? If it makes you feel better, we'll leave our clothes on."

I woke up about two because something was laying on my chest. When I got my eyes to focus, I saw that something was Janet's arm. Sometime during the night, she'd snuggled up to my side. When I gently moved her arm, Janet woke up and stretched. In the process, she pushed her breasts into my side, my body didn't need to be reminded about what feeling soft breasts could mean. My cock started telling me it was time to do more than just lay there beside Janet.

Janet fluttered her eyes for a second, then smiled.

"Good morning. Did you have a good night's sleep?"

I had to chuckle.

"It was pretty good until I woke up."

"What's wrong?"

"Well, you're pretty close and like I told you, it's been a while since I slept with a woman."

"You mean you're...Oh God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I'll get up."

Janet bailed out of the bed. I followed her but a couple of minutes later so I wouldn't embarrass myself. She was sitting in the right hand seat when I walked out of the sleeper and asked if she was ready for something to eat. She grinned.

"I'm starved, but I really need to use the restroom first."