Free Miracle on I-40 by Curtiss Ann Matlock

even as he moved out of the booth.
    But then she looked into his face. Oh, dear .
    She extended the wad of napkins and took a step backward.
    Ignoring the napkins, the man rose from the booth, seeming to unfold into an enormous, red-headed giant, who was shaking the back of his shirt and sending little bits of ice clicking on the floor. Then he began bellowing words fit only for ships at sea.
    Anna cowered behind Lacey’s leg, sobbing. Lacey was about to fly at the man, when a hand pressed her aside.
    Cooper stepped in front of her. “That’s enough.” His command cut the air. “It was an ac cident. And you owe these ladies an apology.”
    The man, who had shut his mouth, peered at Cooper and then around him at Lacey and down at Anna. Then he glanced around the restaurant. Lacey looked, too.
    Everyone was staring.
    “Huh,” the man said with disgust and began lowering himself back into his seat.
    “I believe you forgot somethin’,” Cooper said.
    The big man’s eyebrows shot up. Lacey, still behind Cooper’s shoulder, tugged on his coat. But Cooper stayed planted.
    “Pardon me...la- dies ,” the big man said in a low voice and with a bare glance, as he lifted a coffee mug to his lips.
    Lacey turned Jon and took Anna by the hand.
    The next instant, Cooper was beside them and scooping up a wide-eyed, sniffing Anna to carry her grandly from the room.
    “Stop in here,” he said in the lobby outside the restrooms, where he lowered Anna gently to the floor. “ All of you. I don’t want to have to stop again ten minutes down the road.”
    * * * *
    The incident had brought all sorts of uncomfortable memories. Cooper didn’t like to have memories. He tried to leave them behind by walking quickly away from Lacey and the kids. He tried to focus on checking out the rig again, walking around it and hitting the tires with the stick, hard.
    But still, the memories swirled around him.
    “Boy, you’re gonna learn not to be stupid.” “I’ll teach you to keep your mouth shut.” “Kids are meant to be seen and not heard.” The faces changed, but they all were big and threatening, and Cooper had been small for a child, like Anna. He had always seemed to be clumsy. Until he turned fifteen and suddenly he had muscles. He had been on his own since then.
    “Hey, buddy.”
    Cooper was bending over, checking the cables. He looked over his shoulder and knew he had made a clumsy error in not paying more attention. The red-headed giant bore down on him. He barely had time to straighten, before the man swung, his fist plowing into Cooper’s cheek.
    It didn’t last long, and Cooper got in a few licks of his own before the hulk sent one final blow to the solar plexus that knocked Cooper sprawling on the pavement. Satisfied, the man hitched up his pants and lumbered away, leaving Cooper watching after him and trying to get a breath.
    He was picking himself up when he heard Lacey’s voice and running footsteps. “Cooper? What…”
    He held up a hand and tried to quickly straighten his shoulders, though the movement hurt considerably. Tentatively, he felt the already swelling skin beneath his eye. He licked blood from the corner of his mouth.
    “Oh, goodness…” Lacey, hovering, pressed a tissue to his mouth. Her eyes were close enough for him to fully see her long eyelashes. Her womanly warmth drifted out and around him. He enjoyed her ministrations for a brief moment, then came to himself and pulled away.
    “It was that big guy from the restaurant, wadn’t it, Coop?” the boy said. “How’d you do?”
    “Well, he doesn’t look too good, either.” Cooper managed to get out. He wasn’t about to tell the kid, or Lacey, that about the best he’d done was give the hulk a split lip.
    “Here...put this on your eye...come on now.”
    He took the tissue she handed him and dabbed at a sore place near his eye. He remembered the contact with the pavement. He said, “Let’s get in the truck.”
    “Cooper, maybe we should