Long Haul Love (Trucker Love #1)

Chapter Nine

A sharp tapping in the wee hours of the morning jerked Shepherd from the best sleep he could ever remember. He frowned when he could not move. Something was holding him down.

But what?

Opening his eyes, he found himself facing a wall. A fuzzy dark wall that he did not recognize. At the same moment, he felt a big, warm body behind him move.

“Go back to sleep, Hoss. The alarm won’t go off for a couple hours yet.”

That voice helped open the floodgates and in the next instant everything that had happened in the past thirty-six hours came flooding back. Being dragged from his bed and given five minutes to pack a backpack. Running at the truck stop. Brogan. Sexy games that had continued without full on anal sex.

What the fuck had he done?

Before he could respond, the sharp tapping started again.

“Shit, who the fuck is that?”

Brogan said, pulling his arms from around him and rolling out of bed.

In the next instant, someone outside called something that Shepherd could not understand, but that pulled another curse from Brogan.

“Pull on some clothes and stay quiet,”

he said as he pulled on the jeans he had been wearing the night before. “I’ll try to keep them from coming inside, but you might need to show yourself.”

“Who is it?”

“State police.”

“Fuck,”

Shepherd said as he tossed off the covers and scrambled to gather his clothes from the floor.

Would his father send the state police after him? Of course he would. He needed Shepherd back to close whatever deal he had made with Carlos Reymundos.

With that, Brogan sat in the driver’s chair and spun it back into position where he could look out the front window. He worked the extra lock he had put on the door the night before to keep road pirates from trying to steal his vehicle. Another moment and he pushed the door open and bent down while holding the side curtains up out of his way. Shepherd knew he was trying to keep him hidden, so he finished dressing as quietly as he could. Once he was fully clothed, he crawled back onto the bed, into the corner of the cubby the storage units created around the bed. He stayed behind Brogan’s chair, hoping whoever it was did not climb in and see him. With his back to the corner, he pulled his knees to his chest and then pulled the covers over him until only his eyes and the top of his head were visible.

“Morning, officer. What can I do for you?”

“Brogan Myles?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I need to see your paperwork on this load,”

the officer said, sounding like he was as grumpy as Shepherd felt for being woken in the middle of the night.

Brogan shifted in his chair and pulled out the plastic box with a clip on the front of it. During one of their waits at a weigh station, he had shown Shepherd all the paperwork he had to keep and how he organized it so his brother who ran the office would not kill him when he finally returned home at the end of a three-week run. All the receipts for gas and food and everything else were kept in neat little dividers in the plastic box, and the paperwork identifying the trailer was clipped to the outside, along with his drive sheet, time sheet, and other paperwork involved in being a trucker.

“Can you step out, please,”

the officer said after Brogan handed over the clipboard/box combination.

Brogan climbed out and shut the door, which meant Shepherd could no longer hear what was being said.

A few minutes later, Brogan opened the door again and climbed back in, pushing the curtains out of his way as he pulled the door closed again.

“What was that about?”

Shepherd whispered, afraid the officer might still be out there and hear him.

“Joe Asshole and his partner who cornered you earlier saw something online about a senator’s son being missing. They called the police and told them they had seen you with me and I told them you were my husband.”

“Fuck,”

Shepherd said, pulling the blanket a little closer around him.

“I told the officer that those two were liars and that I wasn’t married, and was just helping out someone I saw in trouble. I had never seen you before and had no idea where you’d gone after I sent the two on their way.”

“In other words, you lied your ass off.”

Brogan shrugged. “The officer accepted it as the truth and has gone away. From what I could tell, he wasn’t happy to be out here at two o’clock in the morning anyway.”

“So, what now?”

Shepherd wondered how much longer Brogan would put up with all the horse shit that was following him around.

“Now we go back to bed. It’s another three hours before the alarm goes off and we have to start the day. But until we get on the road, I need you to stay in here, preferably out of sight.”

Shephard nodded and then straightened out and laid back down, leaving plenty of room for the big trucker to join him in the bed.

“Goodnight,”

he whispered once Brogan snuggled in behind him. Since they were both dressed, they kicked the covers to the bottom of the bed and just cuddled together.

“Sweet dreams, Hoss.”

****

As usual, Brogan woke a few minutes before the alarm went off three hours later. Brushing a kiss on the side of Shepherd’s head, he carefully backed away and got up before pulling the covers over the still-sleeping man. No reason for Shepherd to wake up this early.

After pulling on his socks and boots, he quietly pulled the curtain closed just behind the two seats before opening the curtains that covered the windows. Once that was done, he climbed out and went to the truck stop to do his morning business and get some food for the road.

After getting two bottles of orange juice and three breakfast sandwiches, he filled his oversized, insulated cup with coffee before returning to the truck. A walk-around inspection and they were ready to pull out and head to Destin. He started the truck and let it warm up before stepping between the seat.

“Hoss, it’s time to wake up,”

he said as he gently shook the sleeping man’s shoulder.

“Five more minutes, Mom,”

Shepherd said, clearly still asleep.

Brogan patted his ass and said, “I gave you twenty. If you want to use the restroom and wash your face before we hit the road, you need to get your ass out of bed and inside.”

Shepherd rolled over and blinked up at him. It took a few seconds before his brain seemed to begin firing. “What happened to the alarm? I didn’t hear it go off.”

“I woke up before the alarm and turned it off so you could sleep a few more minutes. Now get up and get moving, Hoss. I want to be on the road in the next five minutes.”

“Okay, I’m up. Please don’t leave without me.”

Shepherd rolled out of bed and shoved his feet into his sneaker. In the next second, he was out the passenger’s door and running across the parking lot.

He returned in seven minutes, carrying a bag in each hand. Opening the door, he set the bags on the floorboard before climbing up and sitting down. He closed the door and put on his seatbelt before looking at Brogan.

“Sorry I took longer than five minutes, I thought we might need food and drinks.”

Brogan chuckled as he pointed to the food he had set out on the dashboard. “I picked up sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches and orange juice. What did you get?”

Shepherd’s cheek burnished as he opened one of the bags. “Donuts, coffee cake, and soda.”

Brogan hit the button that locked the doors before putting the truck in gear. “We’ll save that stuff for later. After you get a decent breakfast in your belly.”