Easton wanted to ask why, but he wasn’t sure if that was prying. She didn’t strike him as the sort of person who appreciated being peppered with questions. “That must have been hard.”
“It wasn’t that bad. When I was fourteen, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She only told me, not my sisters, because she didn’t want them to worry, and I needed to be aware because I was going to have to babysit more and she was going to need extra help.”
“Where was your dad?”
An audible scoff fell from her lips. “Gone. He left when I was five and my sisters were four, three, and two.”
Easton noted that her sisters were all very close in age, but he didn’t comment on it. His brothers were all two to three years apart and he knew that they’d been a handful for his parents, and they’d had each other. It broke Easton’s heart thinking about what it would have been like for a young mom with four girls alone.
“Anyway, once she got sick, I really had to step in and do a lot more. I did homework, laundry, meals, and made sure teeth were brushed. I also graduated early, at sixteen, and got a full-time job while I went to college online and at night.”
“Wow.” Easton didn’t know what to say. He’d known that this woman was impressive, but everything that came out of her mouth just cemented his initial impression.
“I thought if I was graduated and had a job then the state might let me keep my siblings if my mom died.”
“And they did, right?”
She nodded. “But I was eighteen by then. My mom made it ten days past my eighteenth birthday. I really think that she was just hanging on until I was legally an adult.”
Easton watched as tears filled her crystal blue eyes. When one slipped down her cheek a look of horror appeared on her face.
“Sorry.” She sniffed as she wiped her cheek. “I never cry.”
“Everyone cries.”
“Not me.”
A silence fell between them. It wasn’t a comfortable silence like when they’d eaten. This was heavy. He wanted to say something, anything but he had no clue what would make her feel better. He wasn’t used to not knowing what to say. He’d always been a very intuitive person. Even living in other countries, surrounded by people who spoke a different language, he was able to communicate.
But now when he needed the right words, he found himself unable to come up with them even without a language barrier.
Beside him he noticed a shiver run through her and she sucked in a shaky breath and looked out the window. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon.”
Easton had completely forgotten where they were or that they were stranded. He looked out and saw that snow was beginning to pile up around the broken tree branch.
“No, it doesn’t.”
“We’re probably going to be here all night.”
“Probably.”
“And the temperature is just going to drop.”
“It is.” He wasn’t sure how cold it was going to get overnight, but he knew that it would definitely get colder.
He watched as she bit her lip and glanced over her shoulder and then back to him. He could tell that there was something brewing behind those gorgeous baby blues, but he had no clue what it was.
“If we’re going to be here all night, sitting up here in wet clothes is probably not the smartest thing to do.”
His brows pinched together as he considered what that statement was implying. It took him a second, but then he asked, “Did you want me to step outside so you can change into dry clothes?”
“No.”
Okay, now he was really lost.
Her shoulders straightened as she sat up and explained very matter-of-factly, “I think we need to put the seats down, move everything in the back up against the sides like insulation, strip out of our wet clothes and use our body heat to stay warm while we sleep.”
Easton’s pants tightened at the image that popped into his mind. If he was responding like that from just the suggestion, he hated to think what his body would do in actual practice. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”