Rough Ride

Slow Ride

Wild Ride

Long Ride

Rough Ride

Riding with Honor series book 1

Rebecca M. Avery

This is an original publication of Rebecca M. Avery

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are being used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012

Rebecca M. Avery

Cover Design by George Guignet (Miserable George)

[email protected]

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

Library of Congress Catalog

ISBN-13: 978-1481144179

Rebecca M. Avery

To Karen for encouraging me to write in the first place and Kim who believed this was good enough and made me keep going even through the rough parts.  Thanks a million.

This trip had gone to hell in a hand basket.  Sitting alongside the highway only a short distance from her destination, Lilly Warner sighed in frustration.  She left out of the hotel early for the last leg of the journey to her sister’s house in Florida.  Now here she sat not more than ten or fifteen minutes from her final destination, according to her GPS.  The car would not start and she had no idea who to call for help.

If only the stupid thing could have made it to the next exit she would at least have been in her sister’s neighborhood.  Now along with the cars rushing past along the busy highway, she would have to walk a good ways to get to the exit ramp.  Just as she opened her car door a tow truck slowed down and pulled over in front of her car.

“Oh thank God!” She breathed aloud to the bright blue sky.

The gratefulness left as quickly as it had appeared when a man stepped out of the tow truck.  He was tall with a large build and appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties.  He had dark salt and pepper streaked hair and a mustache.  He also looked like a member of some motorcycle gang as there was a chain attached to the front belt loop of his pants that disappeared around his hip to his back pocket.  The t-shirt he wore advertised some motorcycle shop. 

If not for the friendly lopsided smile that displayed across his face she would likely have locked her car door and dialed 911.  He was quite handsome for an older man even despite his rough appearance.

“We need to get you off the highway ma’am.  I can hook your car up to the truck here and take you to the repair shop I work at if you’d like.  It’s just one exit up.” He said as he approached her car.

“I would appreciate that and thank you for stopping, you likely saved me a very long walk.” She replied, stepping out of the vehicle and watching traffic carefully.

“My name is Richard, but my friends all call me Dickie.  Why don’t you have a seat up there in the truck and I’ll get your car all hooked up.” He said

She made her way to the front passenger side of the truck and made every attempt to maintain her dignity as she hauled herself up into the seat.  Her clothing and height made the task that much harder.  At only five foot five inches tall in her high heels, climbing up in the monstrous truck was a feat.

Once inside she took her cell phone from her purse and tried calling her sister.  Upon receiving Sherri’s voicemail she left a message telling her to call back when she could and that she had car problems and was on her way to a repair shop.  Several minutes later Dickie climbed up in the driver’s side and they were headed towards the exit dragging her car behind.

Upon exiting the highway and pulling into the repair shop Dickie parked the truck and helped her out.  The building looked like it may have been an old gas station at one time that had been remodeled many years ago.  Though it was run down in appearance it was apparently a popular establishment.  Several cars and motorcycles were parked down an alleyway that ran alongside a fence starting at the street and disappearing alongside the building.

“You can sit in the office while I take a look and see what’s going on” he said pointing towards a doorway through the open garage bay.

Stepping inside a tiny office area, she could not believe the mess.  Piles of papers were stacked everywhere including in the only available chair.  A shelving system ran the length of the side wall
and overflowed with papers and opened boxes that contained more papers and files.  The desk chair was inhabited by a frail looking elderly woman who was ninety if she was a day.

The woman was thin with white hair that was perfectly styled and wore light makeup with red lipstick that Lilly could hardly keep from staring at.  Her voice was pleasant but would have given away her age had her weathered face and hands not done so.

“Well I’ll be.  Can I help you miss?” The older woman asked.

“My car broke down and that man… Dickie…towed it back here and is looking at it now.  He told me it would be ok to wait in here until he’s done.” She replied.

“Why of course.  Just let me move some of those papers out of the way and you can sit down.  It gets worse and worse every time I come in here.  I’m Edna and what’s your name?” She asked.

“Lilly, it’s nice to meet you.  Don’t worry about me.  I’ve been driving for a while so I don’t mind to stand.” She replied.

“I’m just here trying to help my grandson Bobby.  He owns this shop but his bookkeeping and office skills are sorely lacking.  I keep hoping he’ll hire a nice, smart girl to run the office, but he only seems to hire tramps that hang out in the garage for a week and then quit.” Edna huffed.  “I’m too old to do this kind of work.  I don’t know anything about computers and as you can see the paperwork isn’t real organized.  I’m not sure I really even do any good, but it keeps my mind active so…I keep coming by.”

“Anything I can do to help?” She smiled at the look of exasperation on the poor woman’s face.

“Are you any good with computers?” Edna asked.

“I know a little, what are you trying to do?” She replied

“As I’m sure your aware, its tax season and I need to find all the paperwork for this past quarter’s sales and enter it in this program so we can send the file to the tax preparer.  I found all the sales receipts I could so far and was going to try and enter them but when I click on the program it just brings up a message.” Edna sighed.

She made her way around the desk and watched as Edna clicked on the icon.  She recognized the bookkeeping software instantly.  She had used it often for the numerous charity organizations she had helped run before… she shut down that train of thought and tried to focus on the message the program generated.

“I think it needs to be updated.  I’ve used this program before and they usually send a disk with the updates on it to you through the mail.” She said.

“Oh! Good Lord!  It’s hard to say where that might be in all this mess.” Edna said, clearly overwhelmed.

“Do you mind if I take a look?  I know what it would look like so I might be able to spot it easier.” She suggested.

“Please, by all means.  I’ll even share my lunch with you if you can find it.” Edna offered with a smile.

She smiled at the woman and proceeded to shuffle through several stacks that appeared to be a month’s worth of mail.  After several minutes of digging she found the envelope containing the updates for the software and quickly opened it.

“Here you sit down here and I’ll get Dickie to bring in another chair and maybe between the two of us we can figure this out.” Edna said as she stood and made for the door.

Lilly sat down at the desk and after moving more piles of papers off the top of the computer tower she put in the CD and the install program came up.  She began the installation and unable to stop herself began sifting through the pile of paperwork Edna had laid down on her way to the door.

The stack contained invoices for repair work, all handwritten.  She had always excelled at office work but after she and Darren married, she had conceded to staying home to run the household as he had wanted her to.  Now that she was on her own, she wanted to go back to work… to feel needed and like she was contributing to something other than being one half of a marriage. 

Darren’s life insurance policy was substantial but it wouldn’t be enough to live on forever and besides… Her sister Sherri was right… she needed to start living again.  A job might just be the thing. 

Once her car was repaired and she made it to Sherri’s house, she’d start looking for job opportunities in this part of the country.  Having married when she was in her junior year of college, she’d only ever worked part time or as part of her internship to graduate. 

After graduating they had moved to Long Island, near her in-laws and had been quite happy for the next ten years.  All that changed two years ago when Darren had been in a car accident and her fairy tale life had crashed along with him.

Now she was alone other than her sister.  Their parents had died when she and Sherri were still in high school.  She had been unable to conceive and though she and Darren had talked about adopting a child, it just hadn’t happened.  After the accident she sold off the large home that was too painful for her to live in and moved into an apartment in town. 

Then when that had also proven too painful she decided to drive south and stay with her sister for a while.  Now here she was in small-town Florida, after moving most of her belongings into storage, packing some of her clothes and driving for the past two days.

Darren had never really approved of Sherri or her lifestyle.  Unlike her, Sherri was a party girl and hung around a very rough crowd.  Sherri had been there for her though when her life had crumbled down around her. 

Many late night phone calls and a little more than a year later, Sherri had convinced her to come down and stay with her for a while.  Lilly wasn’t sure what her sister’s life was really like now but knew it was a far cry from the lifestyle she had known for the past decade.

She began sorting the piles of papers around her into several piles.  She made one pile for invoices or money coming into the business and another for bills or money going out of the business.  A third stack was created for unopened mail and a fourth for miscellaneous paperwork that she was unsure about.

She had cleared a fairly good portion of the desk area around the keyboard, mouse and monitor when Edna returned with Dickie in tow.  Dickie was carrying a chair for the older woman and she smiled that this gruff, leather and chain wearing man was being so respectful.  He carried the chair around and sat it next to the chair she was sitting in.