Approaching Menace by June Shaw Read Free Book Online Page A

ultimate reactions.
    Imagining himself with her like the man out there now, the driver felt his arms quiver. His palms burned against the steering wheel. Muscles in his thighs tightened with such force that he needed to shove away his image of Josie cornered.
    If not, he might forget about anyone else around and go after her now.
    Andrew rubbed his palms over Josie’s hips. She heard the cough before glancing over her shoulder.
    An elderly woman walking with a gangly man to one of the few cars still in the parking lot had purposely made the noise to get their attention. The man shook his head as though disapproving, but the lady smiled and nodded.
    Andrew chuckled and Josie grinned, backing away from him. They had so little solitude that they enjoyed each moment they could get alone, or when they thought they were. He often made her forget anyone else might be near.
    She slipped into her car and he waited. Making an anxious face, she pushed in the clutch and accelerator, and turned the key. Her car started.
    Andrew beamed. “I knew you could do it.”
    She threw him a thank-you kiss and waited for two cars to pass, then pulled out into the space behind them. She reached the traffic light at the corner right before the mass of cars waiting to cross on Elm. Once she drove across the boulevard, a few cars and trucks made turns and followed her. She glimpsed in the rearview mirror and noticed a dark sedan pulling away from the curb into her lane.
    Traffic remained steady. The rain clouds had moved off, leaving behind sprinkles of sunlight. Josie steered her car down Main Street and turned with other drivers onto Windswept Road leading to Windswept Elementary.
    She stopped behind parked trucks, cars, and two familiar behemoth RV’s.
    No sign of life came from the schoolhouse that normally brimmed with boisterous children. Two stocky boys emerged from the white field house. They lugged bulky football gear over their shoulders and glanced at the string of vehicles. The boys gave looks of relief and shifted their equipment on their backs before hauling it to their waiting mothers.
    Only a few rays of the sun were out. Some glinted off the window of a red truck parked at an angle on the grass, blinding Josie even through her sunglasses. She turned her head. Still the brightness struck her eyes. She allowed them to shut.
    Leaning into the curve of the seat, she told herself she would have to pay attention so she wouldn’t flood the engine. Maybe she would need to get another one. But every time she mentioned changing it for another used automobile, Andrew and Colin protested. Colin loved the little bug. It was the perfect size for him, and his friends thought her purchase was “cool.” Josie bought it because it wasn’t expensive. She really liked it, too. And Andrew had been so persuasive.
    Opening her eyes, she spied a few more boys lugging their ponderous bags out from the field house.
    No Colin yet.
    The glare slanted from Coach’s truck. Josie squinted and closed her eyes.
    A few moments ago Andrew mentioned he was grateful that he could be trusted now. Of course she trusted him. And the one thing good about her car was that it helped them find each other. He sold cars then, before those grueling months of what they would go through.
    She had searched for a car ever since her previous car developed rattles and a major oil leak. The thrifty runabout had served her well, and she hadn’t hesitated to drive it from Nashville down to Florida. But once she moved in with Sylvie and Colin, her car began staying in shops. She paid too much for repairs. She’d looked at cars in Biloxi, Gulfport, and even Pensacola. Most of the models catching her attention were attractive. And expensive.
    But she’d made the move back with her family to help her mother take care of Colin and help pay for his expenses. She wouldn’t put herself in a position of having to meet large car notes and detract from whatever her brother required.
    She