Fisher (Prince of Tigers, #3) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,64

was that, or they were going to call an ambulance for him. “Dad, if you don’t wake up, I’m going to hit you hard enough to wake you from the dead. Wake up.”

The slap, more than likely harder than she should have hit him, brought him around. Falling back on her ass when he sat up gasping for breath, all she could think about was what would have happened had she not been keeping an eye on him while he’d been out of the truck.

“You all right, Mr. Rankin?” He nodded. Dad was staring at her like he was upset. She knew just what he was thinking—that he’d embarrassed her. He’d not. She stood up when one of the people off the dock came down to help her dad up. “You gave us a scare there, sir. You going to be all right now?”

“Yes. The heat.” It was less than fifty degrees out, so everyone knew he hadn’t passed out because of any heat. “I just get myself nervous and forget to take in as much air as I’m putting out. That’s all.”

“We’d never hurt you. I hope you know that.” The man, a big guy with numbers printed across his T-shirt, looked at her. “You all right, miss? You looked as terrified as anything I’d ever seen.”

“He’s my dad.” Emmie had told her daughter not to move when she’d leapt out to get Dad. Glancing back at the truck, she thought of the excuse they’d made up if they were caught with her there. “My car broke down a few miles back, and Dad was good enough to pick me up. I’m not usually with him when he’s out.”

The man nodded, but she had a feeling he wasn’t buying it. Instead of trying to make her case, which she was sure would make it worse, she got up and went back to the truck. Once he was checked out by their doctor, him telling her dad to take it easy, they were well on their way to the next stop when his phone rang.

“Mr. Rankin, I hope you’re feeling better.” Dad had put it on speakerphone before it rang. He looked at her when the woman told him that her name was Piper Prince. “I’m not mad, so please don’t take it that way, but I would have liked to have known that you had your daughter with you. It might well have saved me some embarrassment when I got a call from the prison a few minutes ago.”

Dad had her pull over, and he sat there, sobbing out their lies while she held him. He also told her how they needed this job because of the fact that he was an ill man. Emmie immediately hated the woman for what she’d done to her dad.

“Mrs. Prince, this is entirely my fault. I wanted to spend some time with my dad, and I sort of talked him into us coming.” Piper told her to call her by her first name and not to lie to her. “Mrs. Prince, I’m beginning to see a part of you that I’m not particularly fond of. And I won’t call you by your given name any more than I would call my dad by his first name. I’ll have him take us home, and we’ll be—”

“Us?” She looked at her daughter and waited for a moment before she said anything about her. “You have your child there with you. Oh, that must be so much fun for your dad and you. To have three generations in one truck. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to call the next place you are to hit and tell them that Mr. Rankin has taken ill and that you’ll be driving. That way, they can prepare themselves for you being there. Then when you come back here for the next load, we’ll have dinner together. Your family and mine.”

“No.” The woman laughed at her answer, or she was off her noddle. Either way, Emmie wasn’t going to get all warm and fuzzy with them. She told her it was fuzzy, not fuzzed. “Are you reading my mind? That’s beyond rude, you know that, don’t you?”

“I do. I wouldn’t have to if you were to tell me what I want to know. Also, I feel pretty good about the fact you didn’t know I was doing it. I’m getting better at it as I go on. But as for dinner, I’m making arrangements now