Free Dorothy Garlock - [Tucker Family] by Keep a Little Secret

of a good time to me.”
    “But what if she…”
    “Look here, Charlie,” he kept on, shooting her a sidelong glance and making the truck go even faster and more recklessly,
     “we’ve been doin’ this for months, probably ’fore you even decided to come to this place. There ain’t no doubt that I know
     what I’m doin’, so just sit back, hold on tight, and don’t do any more complainin’, you hear?”
    “Don’t call me Charlie,” Charlotte warned, instantly regretting her decision not to walk back to the ranch.
    “Why in the hell not? It’s your name, ain’t it?”
    With every harsh word that he spoke, Charlotte’s dislike for Owen grew leaps and bounds until she could scarcely stand the
     sight of him. Never in her entire life had she met a man who was so obnoxious, so willing to say things just to irritate her.
     How utterly wrong she had been about him, especially after the way he had looked at her the night before.
    He’s nothing but a fool!
    “What in the hell kind of name do you have, anyway?” he kept on, seemingly oblivious to how upset he was making her. “The
     only Charlotte I ever had the displeasure of knowin’ was an old woman with a hunched back who spent all her damn time goin’
     back and forth to church, pointin’ out everything the folks around her was doin’ wrong.” Owen chuckled. “But I suppose you
     have that in common with that old bird… what with your claimin’ that leavin’ Hannah behind was wrong and all!”
    Without giving it any thought, Charlotte hit him.
    It wasn’t much of a blow, more of a glancing punch to the top of his muscular biceps than a solid hit, but Owen reacted as
     if he had just been kicked by a horse; the truth was that it almost certainly hurt her more than it did him. His green eyes
     grew wide as he held the steering wheel with one hand, rubbing his new wound with the other.
    “What in the hell was that for?” he bellowed.
    “Because you’re the most disrespectful man I’ve ever met!”
    “ ’Cause I call you Charlie?”
    “It’s much more than that and you know it,” she snapped, turning to face him with eyes full of anger.
    “Whatever it was, it sure isn’t enough for me to get hit!”
    “Don’t be such a baby!” Charlotte snapped, refusing to let him escape punishment for what he had done. “From the first moment
     I saw you this morning, you’ve donenothing but antagonize me! If it wasn’t belittling that I came from Minnesota or making fun of my name, it was that I was
     new in Sawyer and absolutely had no idea what I was talking about!”
    With every angry word, Charlotte expected to feel relief for finally expressing her frustration with Owen but instead found
     it growing. It didn’t help that a sly smirk spread across his whiskered face; it was obvious that he wasn’t chastised but
     amused.
    “Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?” he chuckled.
    Owen’s hurtful question easily shattered the walls of Charlotte’s fury, breaking her will to fight. She turned away from him
     quickly, fearful that he might see the tears that welled in her eyes. Staring out the window of the truck, she somehow managed
     to answer him.
    “My… my mother died the day I was born…”
    Without any warning, Owen slammed down on the brakes of the truck, sending it fishtailing around the dusty dirt road. Panic-stricken,
     her hands fearfully braced against the dashboard, Charlotte worried that they were going to crash, hurtling end over end or
     into the ditch, but they somehow managed to hold to the road. When the truck finally came to a halt, she could barely hear
     the ticking of the engine over the thundering of her own heart.
    “What… what did you do that for?” she coughed through the clouds of dust raised by the truck’s sudden stop.
    For a long while, the only answer she received was silence. Her first expectation was that Owen’s sudden stop meant he was
     going to tear into her about something, maybe even her