The window rolled down. Serafina Callahan propped her elbow in the window. “You aren’t waiting for me to open the door for you, are you? Because that’s not part of the service.”
Alex continued to stare at the monstrosity. Silver duct tape rimmed the front wheel well. The original bed had been replaced with a wooden flatbed. “Is this thing safe?”
“Old Blue works just fine. She gets me where I’m going.” She rolled up her window, her shoulder rising and falling with each rotation of the handle.
Alex took a breath. He walked around the front of the truck and pulled open the passenger door. The floorboards were about three feet off the ground with no running board. He set his carry-on on the seat, grabbed the edge of the dash and jumped in. “I guess that’s all that counts.” The door screeched as he pulled it shut.
The lights over the main terminal door dimmed. Inside the ticket agent leaned against the glass doors and waved. “Interesting characters.”
Sera shrugged. “What’s your point?” She turned the truck out of the parking lot and onto the narrow road. The truck stalled in the middle of the two lanes.
Alarmed, Alex looked over his shoulder for oncoming traffic. “We’re in the middle of the road.”
“No kidding.” Sera tried the key. The engine turned over once, twice, coughed, died.
“Do something.” He was wishing more and more he had opted for the plastic seats in the lobby. At least he wouldn’t be roadkill.
She switched off the headlights.
Alex pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. He hadn’t called his mother in three weeks. He would die without saying goodbye.
The engine turned over, coughed and caught. Sera flipped on the headlights and shifted into first gear. “You’re a nervous sort, aren’t you?”
Alex put his hand to his chest. “Only since I arrived here.”
With the rain and the overcast sky, darkness had come early. The headlights lit up trees and shrubs close on both sides of the narrow road.
Looking for his phone, his hand felt the Hershey’s bar in his coat pocket. Maybe she was low on sugar. He offered her the candy bar. “From Mike. He seems to think you like chocolate.”
Her eyes lit on the bar held in his hand. She snatched the bar from his fingers. “And he would be right.”
They both saw the tree branch in the middle of the road at the same time. She slammed on the brakes. His hand shot forward and gripped the dash.
“Sorry. Tree branch. Middle of the road.” She ripped the paper from the candy bar and bit off a huge chunk. And then glanced his way guiltily. “I haven’t eaten all day.” She downshifted.
Except for the roaring of the big engine, the hiss of the tires on the wet road and the ripping of the candy bar wrapper, the next few miles passed in silence. The old truck seemed to find every pothole, which didn’t help his headache one bit. Alex held on to an overhead handgrip as they bounced down the road in the dark. “There’s no interstate highway between the airport and Clover Hill?”
In the glow of the dash lights, he thought he detected a small smile. “There is, but I don’t think my truck will float. This way gives us the best chance of getting home without ending up in the Chesapeake.” She cut him a quick glance. “Is that okay with you, Mr. Kimmel?”
“Call me—” His eyes widened as he saw the obstruction in the road while at the same time realizing she was looking at him. He opened his mouth to warn her but nothing came out. When she jerked her gaze back to the road, she twisted the wheel to one side, steering them toward a tree on the side of the road. Alex’s head slammed sideways and bounced off the window.
He caught a brief glimpse of a white tail and a big tree as his hand again reached for the dash. He wasn’t fast enough. His forehead hit the dash before his hand.
The engine rattled twice and then quit. Rain drummed on the roof of the cab. The headlights shone on a tangled mass of wet green. The tree they had been heading for was just outside the driver’s-side window.
“You just had to devour that candy bar while driving in the middle of a monsoon.” When he heard no response, his gaze slid from the tree to the driver, grimacing and rubbing her right knee. “Are you all right?” He looked her over for bleeding, but in the dim light provided by the headlights, he couldn’t tell which dark spots were water and which were blood.
“Deer.” She leaned her head back against the seat and shut her eyes.
“Deer?”
Opening her eyes, she said to him slowly, “I thought they’d be bedded down in this rain.”
“I see.” He didn’t see. All he cared about was whether they both survived the crash. Then, as he looked around, he cared even more about how they were getting out of this mess.
* * *
STARING AT THE blur of rain on the windshield, she was glad she was driving the sturdy, indestructible old pickup, because the tree would’ve done a lot more damage to a car than to the twenty-year-old truck. As far as her passenger... She glanced sideways. “I’m all right. Are you all right?”
The man rubbed his forehead. When he took his hand away, Sera saw a goose egg already forming above his right eyebrow. Leaning forward, she pressed her hand to his head.
As he jerked away, his head bounced off the window. “Ouch. This thing is a death trap.” He pushed on the door, which gave a loud whine.
Sera leaned back against her door. The man wasn’t very appreciative. “I was just trying to help.”
He held up his hands. “You’ve done enough already, trust me.”
She huffed out a blast of air. “Fine.” She turned the key. The engine sputtered and died. She closed her eyes and muttered a quick prayer. She turned the key again. The engine ground over and over... Please... The engine caught and she breathed a sigh of relief. She would have to rock the truck out of the ditch. Alex could get in or get out. She gave up trying to be nice. He pulled the door shut just as she put the truck in first gear, pressed the throttle and then quickly moved the handle to Reverse. The truck rocked forward, then backward, then stalled. She tried twice more but with no luck. She looked at her companion and tried to adopt what she thought was a hopeful tone. Maybe she had been too harsh. “We’re a little bit stuck.”
“What was your first clue?” Alex rubbed at the growing bump on his head before sending her a look. “So now what?”
Sera stared out at the branch pressed across the entire width of the windshield, blocking her view. Reddish buds were just pushing into leaf. The engine ticked in the silence.
She cleared her throat. “We walk.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw him turn to look at her, but her gaze remained on the windshield. “Can’t you call a tow truck?” he asked.
She debated how to break the news to the newcomer. “I don’t have a cell phone.”
“You don’t have...” His hand slapped his coat pocket. “I have a cell phone.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed a button. The interior of the cab lit up. He swiped the screen and waited. The light went out and the cab returned to darkness. “What the heck?”
Sera drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. If anyone was going to get them out of this dilemma, it was she. He was obviously totally dependent on technology. “Probably no signal.”
Alex looked from the phone to the woman and back again. “What do you mean, no signal?”
“I mean, there are no cell towers on this side of the valley.”
Mumbling