Her lashes flutter as she opens her eyes and glances carefully out the window and windshield, hands still clamped on the seat. “I’m okay.” Her frightened eyes lock with mine. “Are we off the road, or …?” She pauses, nibbling on her lip. Conditions outside the truck are approaching whiteout—we can’t see jack.
“Yeah. We slid right off. I’m really sorry.” My hand skims over her hip, and I reach for her buckle, unclipping it and tossing it away from her. I tug her into my arms, the feel of her body against mine, her heartbeat, her scent—everything about her—it’s pretty much my undoing. I close my eyes and let myself feel her here with me, to hell with everything else right now.
Her voice is muffled against my chest. “Can we get back on the road, do you think?”
I slowly shake my head. “I kind of doubt it, but when I get out, I’ll look before I do anything else.”
Her fingers sink into my upper arm through my coat. “Shawn, what are you talking about?” She tilts her head back to look at me, brow furrowed with worry.
“I might have to go for help. There was a gas station about a mile back.”
“Oh, no you’re not. No way. We have cell phones. Let’s try to get help to come to us first.”
I chuckle into her hair as I hold her close again. “What? You’d be worried about me?”
From the anguish on her face when she pushes away from me, I realize that was a mistake. Wrong thing to say. And I don’t even know why.
“Of course I would.” She bites her lip and looks down.
“I was teasing you.” I cup her cheek in my palm, sliding my thumb under her eye where a tear has just broken free. Oh, boy. I think between whatever was already upsetting her and the fact that we’re now stranded in the middle of a snowstorm, she’s a little overwrought. I’ve got to do something to get her mind off of things. She needs a purpose of some sort, something to occupy her mind.
“I tell you what, do you think you’d be able to crawl over the seat into the back? There’s a box stowed under the seat with emergency supplies. There should be a blanket or two under there as well. If you can get that stuff out, I’ll work on getting help.
Once I’ve spoken to 911 dispatch and have given them our location, I pull up the thread of text messages with my brother.
Me: Hey. So much for leaving early. We ended up in a ditch. I wanted to make sure more than just the dispatcher had our location. Sending it now.
My brother and I are on a family cell phone plan, so I pull up his info and send him my location.
Heath: Ah, shit. I wish we could have warned you all sooner. That storm is moving faster than anyone anticipated. I texted as soon as Sophia told me it looked like it was going to be bad. You guys okay?
Me: Yes, we’re okay so far. Engine’s still running, so we have heat.
Me: You know me, I’ve got blankets and stuff in the back and we’ll hope someone can get to us. I’ll check in every thirty minutes or so.
Heath: Okay. Be safe, brother.
From the backseat, Madison gasps and then mumbles, “You are like a Boy Scout.” She hands me a couple of blankets along with the box of supplies before she begins to climb back into the front seat.
I smile at her when she finally hikes her long limbs over the back of the seat and settles. “Yeah, kinda.” I pop open the box and dig around. There are a bunch of medical supplies on top, but at the very bottom is my stash of hand and foot warmers. They’re the kind that you open the package and shake to activate, which starts some sort of chemical reaction that creates warmth. They stay that way for hours, so I figure we’ll get them out now, as they take a few minutes to heat up. If we’re here so long that we run out of gas and the truck shuts off, at least we’ll have a way to stay a little warm. For a while, anyway. I keep my thoughts from Madison, not wanting to worry her.
I open and shake five of these things, one right after another, all while Madison looks on, her brow pinched. I toss them up on the dash while they warm up.
“What exactly are those?”
“They’re what will keep you toasty warm until someone can get to us.”
She frowns. “Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“And you?”
I send her a tight smile and shake my head. “I’ll show you what we’ll do in a sec.”
She pouts, almost scowling, and even though we’re in quite the predicament, my eyes are drawn to her full lips and then up to her beautiful green eyes—she’s so damn pretty. I lean over and touch my lips to hers.
“Hey, we’ll be okay.”