Page 21

HEATHER

I f Heather could have chosen to go through this crisis with anyone else in her life, she wouldn’t have.

That was the most shocking thought that struck her while they were driving to the next town.

She would choose to go through this with Cole over anyone else.

What did that mean exactly? Did she love him? Was she ready to admit that to herself?

They had gotten an older pickup truck this time.

Cole called it a cowboy truck, but Heather thought it just looked kind of rusty.

It didn’t matter, though. The main point was that it looked completely different from the last vehicle they had.

Cole wanted to vary their ride as one more precaution, though it was probably unnecessary.

The careless guy she’d met on her first day of work was being far more careful than even she would be in this situation.

She thought about what that probably meant, that he would go to these lengths to make sure she was safe. Had he really been as careless those first few days as she had thought he’d been? Maybe not. Maybe he just had that much confidence that he could perform the stunts without incident.

Despite the unfortunate circumstances, the highway was beautiful to Heather.

There wasn’t anything particularly spectacular about it that should have impressed her.

It was a typical desert landscape; there was sandy soil and shrubs, hills in the distance, but all around them the land was flat.

The horizon was broad and the sky a beautiful shade of blue with not a cloud to be seen.

Somehow, Heather was able to convince herself they were just on a fun road trip.

Her window was open, and the wind was in her hair, and she felt more free than she ever had, even though she was actually running for her life.

She couldn’t have said how much of that energy came directly from Cole, but she would have guessed it was a pretty high percentage.

For a brief hour, it felt like nothing in the world could possibly go wrong, and then for some reason, it did. The truck sputtered and slowed. Cole cursed. Heather asked, “What? What’s wrong?”

“The gas was lower than I thought it was.” He slapped the dashboard. “This stupid gauge isn’t working right. Oh, they’re going to hear about this when I return the clunker. A warning would have been nice.” He let his head drop onto the steering wheel and groaned. “This was not part of the plan.”

“No kidding?” Heather quipped. “I was sure this was your way of kidnapping me because you were jealous of the other guys.” Cole had done so much to lift her mood, she wanted to do the same for him, and what he always seemed to like best was a snarky little argument.

Without lifting his head from the wheel, he turned to look at her, half smiling, half grimacing. “Thanks, sweetheart, but I’m not in a laughing mood. I feel so stupid for not planning for this. I should have had a can of gas at least.”

“You couldn’t have guessed the gauge would be broken. Most rental places check for that sort of thing when a car is returned, don’t they?”

“They should,” he grumbled. “But this last rental location was pretty dicey. I wouldn’t have put it past those guys to do less than the bare minimum. I should have expected this.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Heather said. “I’m not blaming you. Anyway, it doesn’t do any good to blame anyone right now. We need to get some gas. I saw a station back there. We could walk to it from here.”

He sat up and thought about it. “That was three miles back.”

“Come on.” She arched an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t think I can walk three miles?” He should know better of all people. She was in the same profession he was. “You’re not the only one in great physical shape. I’m insulted that you don’t think I can hack it.”

“I know you can hack it. I just didn’t want you to have to.” He laughed and reached across the way to hug her. “Come on. Let’s go get some gas.”

They left the car on the side of the highway and started the long trek to the last gas station they had passed.

Heather made it bearable by telling herself it was just a hike they decided to go on.

When her body started to feel it, she told herself it was just training for her job.

After a while, the horizon started to get a little wavy.

Some time later, her head began to throb.

She doubted it was a good sign, but she decided she could handle it herself.

She just had to push through. Her pride wouldn’t let her ask for a breather.

After all, she’d just told him she was more than capable of walking a few miles. No problem.

By the time they got to the gas station, Heather was a mess. She felt dizzy, and once she started leaning against the outside wall of the gas station building, she didn’t want to stand on her own anymore.

“You okay?” Cole took a break from picking out a gas can to ask her.

She nodded and thought of an excuse. “I just need to use the bathroom, I think.”

In the bathroom, she felt even worse. She splashed a little water on her face and arms to try and cool off, but it didn’t seem to be doing any good.

She felt like she was coming down with something, and she really hoped that wasn’t the case.

The last thing she needed was to be sick when they were on the run like this.

She left the bathroom and browsed the aisles, taking a moment to joke with Cole. “This isn’t a very fancy restaurant you picked, you know.”

He chuckled. “Well, I thought some variety would be nice.” Then he glanced out the windows and frowned.

“Unfortunately, it’s going to be dark by the time we get back to the truck, and I have no idea if there’s even a restaurant open around here.

I think we’re going to have to delay our fancy dinner. ”

Heather crossed her arms in a playful pout. “That’s a poor excuse if you ask me. A cheapskate, that’s what you are.”

“Challenging me, are you? Well, then, pick anything you want from this top-notch eatery, sweetheart. Anything you can carry. We’ll have a picnic on the way back.”

“That’s more like it.” She smiled, but she could tell she wasn’t selling it very well.

Cole confirmed her suspicions when he said, “You seriously don’t look so good, though.”

“I’ll be fine.” She waved his concerns away, but even she could hear that her voice sounded slightly slurred. “I’m just feeling a little…” She couldn’t finish her sentence because the room had begun to spin.

Cole squinted at her, examining her with skepticism and concern.

“That does it,” he concluded. He went around the gas station shop, gathering a number of things Heather didn’t bother to notice.

She was struggling just to stay on her feet at this point.

He paid for whatever he had chosen and had a brief conversation with the man behind the counter.

Then he carried a bag of goods over to Heather and quickly whisked her out of the shop.

Once outside, he guided her behind the station to an old, weathered picnic table that sat in the shade of a lone tree. “Sit down,” he commanded. “You’re overheated and dehydrated.”

“No, I’m not,” she said, sounding fully drunk now despite not having had a drop of liquor.

“You are. I need you to sip on this.” He handed her a blue sports drink after opening the cap for her. “Slowly,” he added.

“I don’t like blue flavor.” Heather tried to pout, but she was too exhausted to manage even that small rebellion.

Cole wasn’t hearing it. “Sip it,” he demanded.

Heather slumped and sipped her sports drink as she was told. “Good enough?” she said after taking two sips. “It’s going to make my tongue blue.”

“I want your tongue to match your hair by the time you’re done. Keep drinking it. We’re not leaving here until the drink is gone, you’ve eaten something, and you’ve held it down.”

“But the truck…”

All Cole had to do was glare at her, and Heather shut her mouth about it.

He was probably right that she was dangerously dehydrated.

It would certainly be a stupid decision to try to hike all the way back to the truck in this state.

Anyway, the shade felt nice, and the blue drink wasn’t nearly as bad as she remembered.

She must have been thirstier than she felt because after another couple sips, it actually started to taste good to her.

“Eat something, too,” Cole said, pushing a small package of trail mix at her.

“You know I’m just going to pick out the chocolate,” she warned him.

“That’s just fine with me, as long as you eat a little something.

” He sat across the picnic table from her and lay back on the bench.

For once in Heather’s life, there wasn’t anything to do but sit and wait.

She had no phone to scroll through social media with, no messages to read, no missed calls to return.

All she had was the sound of the wind blowing the leaves in the tree, the speckled sunlight painting a moving pattern on the picnic table, and the striking blue of the sky above.

As she slowly finished her sports drink and munched on her trail mix — she did actually eat a few nuts and raisins, despite her threat not to — she began to feel better, calmer.

She might even call the sensation some kind of peace.

She closed her eyes and listened to the sounds of the desert around her.

Even the hum of the occasional car that came to the station to fuel up was beautiful in its own way.

Her headache began to ebb just as the sun sank low enough to touch the horizon.

Cole shot up after dozing off for a moment. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, and the panic he felt at realizing he had was apparent. As soon as he saw Heather, he relaxed. “Do you feel better?” he asked her.

She nodded.

“Feel well enough to walk back?” He pointed an accusatory finger at her. “No lying now.”