A Wrong Turn Towards Love by Pepper Pace Page B

that she was more outraged than afraid. She quickly climbed into the truck and then he did as well.
    “I apologize for those boys in there.  You smack their faces and put ‘em in their place and they’ll leave you alone.”  He’d had to do that pretty often, hadn’t he? Especially when he was a kid. Back then it was other hate-filled names that he’d had to fight over. Bodie started up the truck and this time an Eagles tune was playing.  He reached up and cut off the radio.
    “Oh let it play. I like The Eagles.”
    To his credit, Bodie didn’t find it strange that a black woman listened to The Eagles. Good music was good music. He turned the radio back on.
    “So what brings you to our neck of the mountains?”
    She was huddled into the corner prepared to leap from the truck at the first sign of danger. “Well. I was on my way to Richmond to visit my Grandmother.”
    “Richmond? How did you get up on the mountain?”
    She gave him a horrified look. “You mean I am actually on a mountain?!”
    Bodie’s brow arched. “Yup.”
    She stared at the road. “I pulled off the highway to get something to eat and to fill up the tank. I guess I got turned around. I kept driving until I saw the store and stopped there to make a call.” She gave him a frown. “But I don’t think that was a real store…”
    That was some big turnaround . He didn’t bother to explain that Cobb Hill was dry and that she’d just stepped into an illegal bootleg establishment—though illegal was a stretch since the police also frequented the establishment. His hazel eyes moved to lock onto her brown ones. “You’re traveling to parts unknown, in the middle of the night…in a car that’s prone to transmission problems?” The statement didn’t leave any confusion to his thoughts on her level of stupidity.
    “It’s a long story,” she replied stiffly at his implied insult. She shook her head and stared out her window. “Just wait until I tell grandma that I got lost in the mountain with a bunch of good ‘ol boys running around in white hoods.”
    Bodie was starting to like her. She wasn’t easily intimidated. Not even Sully’s pals in the woods did much in the way of breaking her. It must have made Sully feel even more stupid than he should by wearing that dumb-ass costume out in public.
    “Well my name is Bodie. I apologize for driving off earlier. If I knew those fools were playing around in the woods I would have never done it.”
    “Well…thank you for coming back. My name is Shaundea, or just Shaun. I’m sorry if I came off like a bitch. I’ve been driving all day and most of the evening. When I stopped at that bar some guy just started in on me. I told him I wasn’t interested but he tried to block me in! Where I come from when you jump at somebody like that it means you want a fight.”
    “Where are you from?”
    “Chicago.”
    After a few moments they pulled into the parking lot of the Holiday Inn.
    “I hope they have vacancies,” she said distantly.
    Bodie shrugged. “This isn’t the busiest place in the world. I doubt if they’ve ever been to capacity.”
    “I don’t know,” she mumbled while walking to the entrance. “People on this mountain have a funny way of treating black folks.”
    Bodie felt a streak of defensiveness but squelched it at the memory of this ladies plight. ‘Course it was her own lack of good judgment that left her in such a predicament. He followed her inside just to make sure that she didn’t run into any more trouble.
    Bodie watched her as she checked in. Cute. Dark. Curly black hair that appeared wild and natural. Big black eyes like a does and plump lips with voluptuous attributes on her small frame.
    She turned to him and smiled genuinely. “I want to think you Mr. Bodie. I don’t know what I’d have done in these boonies by myself. Damn AAA!”
    “Just Bodie. And to AAA’s defense, I may need to update my pager with them. Hell it’s been years since they’ve sent