by JL Hallow
Just hold on.
She repeated those three words over and over. She wasn’t sure how many times she said them or how desperate she would have sounded had they been said aloud but she needed to hold onto that. She needed to believe someone was going…
Grace’s head snapped up. The heavy hum of machinery had her eyes seeking out where the noise was coming from. That distinct sound belonged to that of a snowplow. Anyone who grew up in the North knew that sound; the heavy metal scraping on the asphalt as the truck cleared away the snow.
The sound grew louder and Grace stood up, her body quaking both from the excitement of being rescued and shivering from the sheer cold. She could feel her heart slamming in her chest, breath hitching with anticipation, and just when she thought she couldn’t hold on for another second, the glorious sight of a bright orange plow truck rounded the bend.
Grace let out a squeal, her good arm flinging up into the air as she waved frantically. Her legs were too cold and too numb to trek through the snow to the truck, and then make it back down to Greg.
As the truck approached, it slowed and so did her waving. She was positive she caught his attention, hell, she had to have. A crazy woman standing in the middle of the road waving. Heh. She probably looked mental.
The driver’s side window was down by the time the truck came to a stop. “Holy shit, are you alright?” The driver was young, probably early twenties, but he was already slamming the truck in park and opening the door at the sight of the dried blood on her forehead.
The guy in the passenger seat, however, was quite a bit older. He leaned forward and placed the paper cup of coffee in the cup holder and leaned over the younger man. He scanned Grace for injuries and frowned at her rough condition. “What happened? Your car go off the road?” He saw the smashed rails as soon as the truck had stopped.
Grace nodded. “Yeah, we’ve been stuck for hours. The guy in front of me spun out, I couldn’t stop and we both ended up down the embankment. I think my wrist is broken and I hit my head pretty hard.”
“You said we, another car? Where is he?” The kid was out of the truck, approaching her as he stripped the tan Carhartt jacket from his body.
“Still down there.” She jerked her thumb in the direction she had just come from. “I think his leg is broken, he couldn’t move it and I had to leave him in hopes someone would drive by. I don’t know how long I’ve been waiting up here…I have to get back to him. Can you call for help?”
“Jake, help her on up into the truck. Get her into the heat before she ends up with hypothermia.” The older gentleman was digging in his pocket for his phone.
He frowned slightly. “Real bad reception up here but I think I can get a text out to the office to send some help…” He was out of the truck and heading her way.
Jake took another step closer and draped the coat over her shoulders. “Come on, we’ll get you in the truck. The heat’s already blasting in there…”
Grace cut him off. Her hand moved to the jacket to pull it tighter but she shook her head. “No, I can’t. Greg is down there in the car.” She shook her head fiercely. “I can’t. I promised him I would come back. He can’t stay down there alone.”
Jake glanced at his partner and shrugged. “I can go down and sit with him until they send someone if you’ll stay up here with her? I’ll probably have an easier time getting up and down that hill. I don’t mind.”
“That’s probably the best idea. Looks like that message went through. Don’t know if we’ll get a response back but at least it was sent. Shouldn’t be more than another half an hour…Maybe longer because a lot of the roads are still pretty bad.”
A soft sigh escaped Grace, her shoulders sagging in defeat. They were right. It wasn’t safe for her to go back down there. Honestly, she wasn’t entirely sure she’d be able to make it back up the hill if she did. “Okay, okay. You can go instead of me but let him know I’m okay. Please. Promise?”
Jake nodded. “I’ll make sure he knows you’re safe. Go get in the truck before you freeze to death out here.” He turned and headed for the break in the guardrail, retracing the steps Grace had made coming up. Despite slipping and sliding his way down most of the hill, he managed to get down safely, and from there it wasn’t hard to find the vehicles. Grace was right, from the road, they would have never been seen.
Jake approached the car first, he could see Greg in the driver’s seat and offered a little wave before he opened the passenger side door and took a seat where Grace had been sitting. “Hey.” He closed the door. “I’m Jake. I work for the county as a plow truck driver. My partner has Grace up at the truck getting her warm. She made me promise to tell you she’s okay. How are you doing?”
Greg blew out a sigh of relief and leaned his head back against the seat. “Yeah, I’m alright. My leg hurts but I’m really fine. She’s okay though? She really whacked her head good and that wrist of hers is broken. She was also gone way longer than the twenty minutes she promised. I don’t know how I know that but I know. It had to be an hour at least.”
“Well, it’s a good thing she waited because we would have never seen you guys down here from the road. We saw her as soon as we rounded the bend. My partner managed to get a text out and help should be coming soon. Hopefully we won’t have to wait long, but I don’t know what they’ve got going on, or how bad the roads are coming from the other direction. We’ve been keeping up the best we can…”
Greg held up a hand to stop the rambling. “It’s okay. I can hold on for a little bit longer. Just a comfort knowing someone is on their way. Thank you for stopping.”
“Of course. We couldn’t just drive on by her.”
Greg nodded, the two men falling into a comfortable silence.
Chapter Thirty-Four: Safe
Grace and Greg, present day
Grace lifted her hands and held them up to the heater. The shaking was steadily slowing, but the urge to close her eyes was getting harder and harder to fight. She just wanted to sleep, exhaustion from the adrenaline crash starting to kick her ass.
She let out a yawn, eyes closing as she nestled into the seat. She felt safe with Bruce. Bruce, she had learned, was the older gentleman’s name. He was so kind, helped her into the truck, then gave up his untouched coffee. He had even offered her something to eat but she denied it, hunger not registering through the exhaustion and pain. Even as she sipped on the coffee, she just felt guilty. Greg was still down in the car, probably freezing, while she was sitting in the nice toasty truck.
“I hope Greg is alright.” She murmured.
“If he wasn’t, I’m sure Jake would be back up here trying to get a rush on that emergency crew.” Bruce reassured her.
Grace’s eyes fluttered shut again, sleep calling to her. Bruce cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter, hesitantly reaching out to give her shoulder a gentle nudge.
“Hey, you said you’ve had a head injury. Probably not the best idea to be falling asleep…”
Her eyes snapped open and she forced herself to sit up straighter. “Yeah, okay. I know. You’re right.”
Bruce nodded, keeping those worried eyes on her. He was going to make sure she didn’t fall asleep. “Drink some more of that…” He stopped, head tilting slightly. “Hear that? Sounds like sirens to me.”
He slipped his phone from his pocket and glanced at the time. It had been almost forty minutes since he had sent the text to their dispatcher. “Yeah, that’s gotta be them.” Peeking in the side mirror, he confirmed it with a shake of his head. “Looks like a fire truck and an ambulance. Come on, let’s get you out of the truck so the EMT’s can take a look at you. Stay there, I’m going to come around and help you get down.”
Grace nodded in agreement, shrugging Jake’s jacket from her shoulders. Her coat would be fine now that she had warmed up. Like he suggested, she waited until Bruce came around to her side, and took the hand offered to her after opening the door. Her feet were still freezing and finding her footing to
get down from the truck proved to be a bit rough, even with his help.
“Thank you.” She said quietly. “Thank you for all of this. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.” Bruce smiled before he offered up an arm for her to brace herself on.
Fifty feet away from them, the ambulance and the fire truck stopped, men in uniforms pouring out of both. The two men that were wearing navy blue jackets with EMT written in silver split up, one heading their way while the other went with the fire crew.
“Guess it’s going to be a real pain in the ass to get our vehicles back up.” She let a half laugh escape, not wanting to even think about the damage that had been done to her car.
“The good thing is, you’re both pretty much okay.” Bruce reminded her.
“Oh, I know.”
She didn’t have a chance to say anything else. One of the EMT’s approached them, jump bag slung over his shoulder. He was young but judging by the look on his face, this was just another day at the office. “Hey, heard there was an accident. You okay?” He asked.
Grace nodded. “Mostly, yeah. My wrist is pretty banged up and I hit my head. I don’t think there’s much you’ll be able to do.”
“I can splint your-”
He was cut off by a familiar voice. “Grace?”
Gabe rounded the truck, his gear slowing him down as he plowed through the heavy snow. His dark brown eyes were filled with concern and a touch of fear when they landed on Grace. “Grace! What the hell happened?” His tone was thick with worry. “I’ve been trying to call you all day. I had some time…I couldn’t get a hold of you…I wanted to know what happened with court, if you made it safe. Which you obviously didn’t.” His frown deepened.
“I’m okay.” She offered up a smile, one she hoped would convince him she meant it. “There was an accident this morning. We went off the road. There’s another guy down there.” She gestured toward the area she had come back up. “He’s hurt worse than I am, so you should probably send the medics down there. I’m okay.” She repeated.
Gabe stepped forward and quickly pulled her into a tight hug. Leaning down, he kissed the top of her head. “Christ, Grace. You scared the hell out of me.”
“Gabe, I’m alright, really. Let him check me out and you can see for yourself…”
“I can bring her back to the ambulance while you guys work on getting the guy out of the car. I don’t know how bad the injuries are but my partner will be there to help and I’ll be down as soon as I can get there.”
“He’s got a broken leg. We think, anyhow.” Grace offered up.
“Okay then, so we’ll need the basket stretcher. You guys have one on the truck?”
“Yeah, we’ve got some rope to pull him back up the hill with too.” Gabe released Grace but hesitated when he took a step back.
He wanted to stay with her but knew he had a job to do. Especially when the crew was already down two guys. Grace glared at him, pointing at the truck with her good hand. “Gabriel, go. If I go to the hospital, you can come but I am fine! Go get Greg and make sure he’s alright.”
“Greg?” Gabe questioned, ignoring her use of his full name.
“The guy in the car. Now go!” She demanded.
He fixed her with a stare but relented with a sigh. “Alright. I’ll come check on you as soon as I can.” He paused to place a quick kiss on her forehead before heading back to his crew to help with the rescue.
Grace turned back to the EMT. “I’m Grace, by the way. I guess we should get me looked at now, eh?”
“Trent, nice to meet you and probably. I didn’t know you were Gabe’s girl. He’ll wring my neck if you’re not actually fine, you know that right?”
“Gabe’s girl…” She shook her head. “You keep that to yourself and yes, I’m fully aware of that but I swear, it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”
Trent met her with a smirk and ushered her toward the ambulance. “If you say so.”
Chapter Thirty-Five: Gabe’s Girl
Grace, present day
Grace sat at the edge of the hospital bed and sighed as she listened to Gabe go on and on. Who knew her being safe would freak the guy out so much? But he had been going on non-stop about it since the nurse had brought her back from x-ray. Fifteen minutes later the doctor had come in and confirmed the break, and then she was promptly put in a cast.
“And the concussion…you won’t be able to sleep tonight which means I should probably stay over to help with Victoria.”
“Eileen said she would keep her overnight.”
“But who is going to make sure you don’t fall asleep?”
Grace could feel her patience wearing thin, and before she could stop herself she shot up off the bed and nearly passed out from a wave of dizziness. She closed the distance between them and her hand came up to grab his chin, ultimately stopping his pacing. “Enough.”
His broad shoulders relaxed in a heavy sigh as he stared at her. He had half a mind to cross his arms over his chest and continue his lecture, but her death glare made him keep his mouth shut for once.
“I’m not dead. I’m not even dying. I am fine. So stop. Please for the love of God, stop. Okay? You can drive me home, we can swing by and get Victoria, then we can go home and you can spend the night. Then in the morning we can make pancakes or whatever your little heart desires but stop with the lecturing.”
“Okay.” He relented. “Okay.” This time his hands went up in the universal sign of defeat.
He reached out and pulled her against him, crushing her into a tight hug. He didn’t think twice about the public display of affection as he nuzzled into her hair. “I’m sorry. I know I’m overwhelming. I’ve just seen too many of these accidents go the wrong way and this time it was you…what if it had been worse? What if…”
Grace silenced him when she leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed the rest of those words away. “It wasn’t and I’m not. So stop dwelling.”
Behind them, someone cleared their throat and Grace pulled away with a blush. “Sorry…” She murmured
“I’ve got your discharge papers here. If you can just sign these, you’re free to go. You have to check in with an orthopedic doctor in a week or so and no sleeping for the next twenty-four hours. Other than that, keep some ice on that head of yours. Follow-up with your primary for the head wound and they’ll remove the stitches.” The nurse handed Grace the clipboard as she parted from Gabe’s protective hold.
“The guy I came in with, Greg? Can I stop and see him before I head out? I’d like to thank him for everything…” The blush came back as she scribbled her signature on the appropriate lines.
“Well, I’m really not supposed to…but yes, I’ll show you to his room. He’s all settled, and I believe he’ll be getting discharged soon too so let’s hurry.” She took the clipboard back and gestured to the door.
Grace grabbed her coat from the chair and quickly followed, Gabe hot on her heels. The nurse led them down the hall, stopping roughly six rooms down. She hesitated for a moment. She really, really wasn’t supposed to be doing this. “I’ll give you guys a minute but only a minute.” She said and turned to leave.
Greg was lying in the bed with his leg propped on a few pillows, an older woman with deep brown hair that was greying at the roots sitting next to his bed. Her hand was locked onto his, even as she leaned back into the chair with her eyes closed.
“Grace.” He offered her a smile as soon as he saw her at the doorway.
“Hi.” She returned the smile as the woman opened her eyes and sat up a little straighter.
“How are you feeling? This is my wife, Holly.” He started the introductions.
Holly greeted her with a bright smile. “Hello Grace, I’ve heard so much about you. It’s wonderful to finally meet you. I’m glad you stopped by, I was hoping you would.” Grace entered the room and Holly stood, reaching out to shake her hand. “He’s told me all about you and your family. I feel like I know you already, honestly.” Ho
lly said with a smile.
“You too, I was so happy to learn about your family. Your children seem wonderful. I’m feeling fine, a bit dizzy but fine. This is Gabe…” She introduced him as he stepped forward.
Gabe offered a small wave and a smile as he stopped at Grace’s side. That protective arm snaked around her waist and pulled her closer and Greg fought back a chuckle. It was hard not to appreciate Gabe’s protectiveness over Grace.
“I’ve been discharged but I wanted to stop by before we went home and say goodbye. I also wanted to thank you for everything today. I really appreciated it. If there was anyone to get into an accident with…I’m glad it was you.” She chuckled at the last part.
“Not that I’m saying I want to…oh nevermind.” Grace said as she broke away from Gabe and crossed the room, stopping at his bedside.
Leaning down, she hugged him. “Thank you.” The words were barely about a whisper.
Grace pulled away and turned to leave, stopping briefly. “Oh! And you were right. The court did call. The case was rescheduled two weeks out on a Tuesday. I didn’t miss the date after all.” She said with a smile.
“That’s wonderful! I told you it would work out.” Greg beamed.
“Yeah, yeah you did. I feel like I should listen to you more often.” She said with a wink, glancing in Gabe’s direction.
“Have a great night you guys, Grace feel better.”
“You too.” She gave a small wave and reached for Gabe’s hand. “Let’s go home.”
~
Grace spent the entire drive to Eileen’s and then the whole rest of the way home, holding onto the door white-knuckled and barely breathing. Despite the snow having been removed from the roads, she was still terrified of sliding on ice and careening off the road again. It was even worse with Victoria in the car; Those protective motherly instincts were surging through her at an all time high.