Free Leather and Steel by Hennessee Andrews

LEATHER AND STEEL
     
    Romance on the Go
     
    Hennessee Andrews
     
    Copyright © 2013
     
     
     
    Chapter One
     
    “I’m not going to make it,” Skye whispered as she fidgeted with the air conditioning knob in the rental car. She hated rentals or any vehicle that wasn’t her own. It was always such a task to learn where everything was in a strange vehicle. It was also hot, damn hot outside, which made her frustration worse.
    The song on the radio ended and the DJ spoke. “Temps continue to rise out there in the listening area. It’s a whopping ninety-six degrees in the shade. Satan called the studio a little bit ago and said he wants his weather back. Drink lots of water and stayed hydrated out there folks.”
    Skye flipped the radio off in irritation. “I don’t need to be reminded how hot it is,” she mumbled while wiping the sweat off her brow. Her plane had landed nearly an hour ago at Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Since that time she’d raced to the rental agency to try to get out of there with enough time to make it to the funeral. If she could have left yesterday, she wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with, but work came first and always had. Now she was fighting a losing battle against traffic and the humid Oklahoma heat.
    The GPS directed her to take the next right. Skye hadn’t been in Tulsa in nearly fifteen years. A hell of lot can change in that amount of time, she decided quickly. Nothing was the same and she struggled as she tried to make her way to the funeral home. Her best friend’s father Don had passed away after a long struggle with cancer. Skye had been very close to the family for years. Mallory, his daughter, was her best friend. Now, she wanted to be there for her and offer any kind of support she could.
    “No! Damn,” she cursed and pounded the steering wheel. A few blocks ahead, a coal train slowly lumbered through the crossing, blocking her travel. She hated to be late anywhere, funerals included. For her, being late was disrespectful, even to the dead. “Shitttttt!” she hollered and squirmed behind the wheel. “I bet we’re at the twelfth car of one-hundred-thirty.”
    She was no stranger to railroads and trains. Before she left Tulsa, she dated a railroader and knew full well that coal trains are nearly eight thousand feet long. At a snail’s pace, the train up ahead continued to move. “At this rate I’ll miss the entire funeral!” She put the vehicle into park and leaned her head back. The A/C was slowly beginning to cool her, but not near enough. Even in her short skirt and sleeveless silk top, she was sweating. She watched the coal cars and cracked her window so that she could hear their unmistakable noises.
    The steady thump and vibrations echoing off the moving rail cars soothed her like they always had. Every once in a while the screech of the flanges from the wheels rubbing against the rail took her back to a carefree time and place. Before moving away, she had a small house near a set of tracks. Every night as she lay in bed, she could hear the sounds breaking the silence. They were comforting and lulled her to sleep as if they offered protection against anything that went bump in the night. Others in her neighborhood didn’t agree as much.
    The sound also reminded her of Brock. She’d met him during her lunch hour one day. Immediately she was attracted to him when they passed each other in a restaurant. He caught her staring and sent her a heart-stopping smile. Her body pushed her forward and her mouth introduced her before rational thinking came into play.
    There was always something about a hard-working man that turned her on. Men in suits and ties never tripped her trigger. Brock? Wow, he had the entire package. She was enamored with him, even in his worn blue jeans, rugged steel-toed boots, and hard hat. His skin was sun-kissed with defined muscles stretching his T-shirt. That lunch hour was one she’d never forget, because it turned