by Mary Leo
It was the only solution, the only rational thing to do, the right thing to do for his child. He’d move back to Plymouth Rock and maybe open his own restaurant. It was a dream he’d had ever since he was a kid. A dream his dad had derailed with talk of security and not taking reckless chances.
Now he knew, his dad only wanted a sure thing, a sure paycheck from Hamilton. That was all over now. His dad was forevermore shit out of luck when it came to anymore cash from Hamilton. Instead, it was time he took action on his dream or it might never see the light of day.
As he hopped off the snowmobile, and headed for the house, he realized that Gaby’s car was missing. At once he thought that maybe her car had been moved so other cars could be parked closer to the front door. But on closer inspection, the tire tracks in the snow indicated that Gaby had indeed headed for the main road.
“Fuck!”
He knew Avalanche road was way too dangerous and had to be almost impassible by now. He’d left without gloves and his hands were freezing. He rubbed them together for warmth, trying to think of a good reason why Gaby would leave after everything they’d said to each other last night, after everything they’d done. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves that were already fried from his conversation with JT.
By the looks of the snow accumulation on the tire tracks, he figured she must have left about ten or fifteen minutes ago. Absolute panic coursed through Hamilton’s veins, and his first reaction was to lash out at anyone who might be in earshot, but no one was around or they would have done everything in their power to try and get her to stay.
Not that it would have mattered.
He took in a deep cold breath and calmed down knowing perfectly well that once Gaby had it in her mind to leave, it would take an act of God to change her mind.
It’s my fault. She’s running to get away from me, he thought.
Although this time . . . after last night . . . this time he hoped it would be different. He remembered an old saying his grandpa liked to quote from Albert Einstein: If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.
No truer words, he thought.
One thing he’d never done before, he’d never gone after her. The last time she’d left him in the hotel room in Denver, he had no idea where she’d gone. He’d sent her a text message and phoned her several times, but she never responded. The next day he’d received a text saying that something had come up and she had to leave, and that it was great seeing him again. In other words, she gave him the royal brush off. He’d phoned right back, but she wouldn’t pick up. He let it go after that, and went on with his life, trying once again to forget her.
He never could.
This time, with the roads being so bad, she wouldn’t have gotten far and even if he had to search the entire town and then make his way to the airport, he was bound and determined not to give up.
This time, he’d confront her and beg her to marry him . . . if only for the sake of their baby.
Hamilton reasoned that Gaby probably still clung to her plans for their baby, and from the looks of her clandestine departure, she didn’t need his agreement. But this time, he was determined to work harder at changing her mind.
He checked his pockets, but he’d left his car keys inside the cabin that morning.
Hamilton sprinted to the cabin, then up the porch steps and through the front door, stepping into the warmth of the cabin. His heart pounded inside his chest and a combination of anger and deep, intense hurt raced through his soul. He simply couldn’t believe Gaby had left. Not this time. Not when she was so scared only a few hours ago. Not after she’d practically begged him to make love to her.
“What the hell?” he said aloud once he’d stepped into the solitude of Gaby’s room and closed the door behind him. Before he went for his keys, he looked around for a note, a scrap of paper with some words scribbled on it to explain her departure. But there wasn’t any.
He made sure there were no text message or an email he might have missed.
Nothing.
He stood in the middle of the room feeling as if the walls were caving in on him. Not only did he finally come to terms with his father’s character today, now he had to deal with Gaby’s departure.
He grabbed his keys off the nightstand as he stared at the unmade bed, the bed where he’d felt his baby move under his hands. Where he’d made love to the woman he loved more than air, and where he’d fallen asleep wrapped up in the knowledge that Gaby loved him. That she genuinely, truly loved him.
He figured there had to be some deep, dark secret buried inside Gaby that continually drove her to leave him, and this time he intended to find what that secret might be.
For a moment, as he lingered over the bed, he felt lost. Adrift. Thinking that no matter what he did or said, Gaby would never be his. That he wouldn’t catch up to her, and she’d get on that plane and this time he’d never hear from her again.
That was when he spotted her phone peeking out from under the white sheets.
“No! No! No!”
He reached over and pulled out Gaby’s phone as adrenalin shot through his body giving him an intense burst of anxious fear. “You left your phone? You’re out on that road without your phone?”
Suddenly, the story his grandfather told about the last great avalanche, when he’d had to rescue his Grandma Win in the snow, crashed into his mind. And he instinctively knew, before he could even think about the details of the story . . . before he felt the cabin shake under his feet, before he heard his brothers yell out, before the loud roar echoed in his ears, he knew an avalanche, the likes of which this town hadn’t seen in over seventy-some years was about to happen.
Chapter Thirteen
The road had become almost impossible to drive on due to all the wet snow that was falling. At one point, Gaby could barely see five feet in front of her and had to rely on a set of faint tail lights to keep on the road. The further she drove from the cabin, the more she wanted to turn around and go back. But there was no going back. Not on Avalanche Road. There were no turnoffs until the first exit for town. From how slowly she had to drive, she knew there would be no way she could make her flight, if there was a flight going out of the airport. And from what she saw on the road, Maddie had been right, nothing was going in or out of Durango-La Plata County Airport.
When the taillights completely vanished in front of her, Gaby pulled off to the side of the road to call Hamilton for help. She didn’t turn off the engine, knowing she’d freeze inside an unheated car. She also kept the windshield wipers going so she could see out the windshield. Fear was beginning to creep up her spine as the conditions all around her worsened. She also knew that stopping the car anywhere on this road when there was a threat of an avalanche might be a big mistake, but she really needed to get Hamilton out here to take her back to the cabin.
“Where the heck is my phone?” she said aloud when she couldn’t immediately feel it in the usual pocket inside her purse. She fished around on the bottom trying to remember if she even put it in there after she spoke to her mom. She’d been so mad she’d tossed it on the bed, but never retrieved it before she’d left.
“My phone is still on the bed. Damn it!”
And just as she realized her phone was back at the cabin, the car pinged, began to run rough, and died, right there on the side of the road.
She tried to get it to start again, but it was completely dead. Not a sound, not a grind or click. It was as if the battery had suddenly died. “Nooo! You can’t do this to me. Not now. Not here! Grandpa Win, you have to . . .”
Abruptly, before she could get her plea out, a great blast of heavy snow pushed her car across the road, spinning it completely around. Instead of everything happening in a great rush of inertia, the car seemed to move in slow motion, causing her to feel as if it was taking forever for the car to stop moving. She braced herself for glass to break or for the car to tumble over the side of the mountain as she screamed and held onto the steering w
heel hoping she could somehow stop the inevitable. But she couldn’t. It was like sliding on ice with no end in sight. The sense of helplessness was overpowering, and instead of thinking about herself, Gaby focused on Autumn, her little baby girl. She had to protect her baby girl at all costs.
She shielded her tummy with her arms, praying that she wouldn’t hit anything, that if the windshield broke or a side window burst, nothing would come in on her baby. The seatbelt held her in tight against the back of the seat, but she was still afraid that it wouldn’t be enough.
The next thing she knew, the car came to an abrupt stop. The windshield looked as if someone had painted it white and was the only thing protecting her from what could be an entire mountain of snow. She immediately tried to open her door, but heavy wet snow pushed against it, making it impossible. Looking around she realized she was in a cocoon of snow with no phone and no way out.
All she could think of was protecting her baby. How she didn’t care about what happened to her, as long as her baby would be all right. As long as God, the universe, Grandpa Win, and everything that was good in the world would keep her baby safe, nothing else mattered. Never in all the months that she’d been carrying little Autumn had she felt such love, and such a raw feeling of protection for her child. At once she realized what it meant to be a mother, a real mother who wanted to hold her baby in her arms, and protect her from anything bad that might happen. It was in that tense moment when she realized she could never, under any circumstance short of her own death, relinquish her child to anyone else.
A renewed sense of strength washed over her, and she was certain she was channeling Grandpa Win. She wasn’t quite sure how it would happen, but she knew she would get out of this tomb, and when she did, no one, not even her own mom, was going to talk her out of raising baby Autumn.
Instead of fear, Gaby suddenly felt joyful. It was the very first time in her chaotic life she knew exactly what she must do.
She would get a decent job she could stick to this time, and raise her child. Damn it, there was no force of nature that would stop her from doing just that.
Now all she had to do was figure out how the hell to get out of this mess!
***
Hamilton heard Scout shout “Avalanche!” but he already knew. Fear for Gaby had him racing back to where he parked his snowmobile. He jumped on, slipped on the helmet he quickly retrieved from just inside the shed, then revving the engine he headed out just as JT and Maddie ran up. He almost hit them, but swerved at the last minute shouting, “Sorry,” as he left them behind.
Ciara, who had apparently arrived without Hamilton noticing, was busy helping Scout load up a burnt-orange colored Rubicon with shovels and tools they would need to rescue anyone who might need it, Gaby included. Hamilton prayed that she had already driven past the avalanche, but if she hadn’t he could only hope that Grandpa Win had taken her out of harm’s way, and that he and his brothers would find her quickly.
Hamilton’s heart beat faster than he ever thought possible. He didn’t know for certain what time Gaby had left, but if she was on this road, she’d be directly in the path of the avalanche.
He took off on the path that he’d already blazed earlier that morning on the same snowmobile, heading towards town, heading towards Gaby. This time he wore gloves, and a helmet. He needed to be ready for anything, and driving in all this snow that kept falling required that he wear a helmet to keep the snow out of his eyes.
Gliding along the snow, banking his machine to the right and left, the motor buzzing loud in the silence, he used extreme caution maneuvering around trees and what he could tell was deep snow, not to get stuck. There was no time for any stops along the way. He could only hope JT and Maddie could keep up with him, and not have their own accidents.
It seemed to take forever to get to the site, and as he raced over the snow, shivering with a combination of fear and cold, all he did was mentally plead to his grandfather over and over: please let Gaby and our baby be all right . . . please let them be all right. Please, Grandpa. Please! I love her so much . . .
When he finally arrived on the scene ahead of everyone else, there were several cars covered in snow, stopped at all angles on the road. People covered in snow and thick winter wear mulled around talking on their cell phones or were trying to dig out each other’s cars. No one had any equipment, so they were digging through the snow with their hands.
Hamilton pulled his snowmobile off to the side of the road in a small clearing, turned off the engine, then hustled to the group of cars stalled in the snow. He desperately searched for Gaby’s white sedan. When he didn’t see it among the cars, bile rose from his stomach as unbridled fear coursed through his veins.
He called out her name as he ran closer to the snow bank that now engulfed the entire road. “Gaby! Gaby! Where are you? Gaby!” Snow still fell making visibility nearly impossible.
He approached a middle-aged man wearing a grass green parka, his hood pulled up over his head. He attempted to clear off his snow-encased SUV with a small window scraper. “Have you seen a pregnant woman on this road . . . short brown hair, about five feet seven, driving a white car?”
He shook his head. “No. Sorry.”
“Thanks,” Hamilton told him and trudged closer to the mountain of snow. As he came closer, he noticed bright taillights peeking out of a mound of snow. He ran toward the taillights, slipping several times, then catching himself with quick footing.
“Gaby! Gaby!” he yelled as he approached.
Then as if by some miracle, the trunk popped open tossing off all the snow that had kept the vehicle hidden, and Gaby’s pretty face emerged from inside the illuminated trunk of her rental car.
“Hamilton! I’m okay. Please, help me get out of here.”
Tears welled up in his eyes as he propelled himself closer without even feeling the ground beneath his feet. He was laughing now, thinking about what his grandfather must have felt when he found the love of his life nearly buried in the snow. The sense of relief was overwhelming, and if he didn’t get control of his emotions he would turn into a blathering idiot.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Hamilton asked, praying she’d say yes.
“A little traumatized, and still shaking, but I think I’m okay. I just need to get out of this car, and get warm.”
Hamilton leaned over and carefully eased her out of the car, careful to guard her belly as she slipped out of the trunk like she’d done it a hundred times before.
Soon Scout arrived with all the necessary equipment to dig her car out of the snow, including the very same pickax Grandpa Win had used to dig Hamilton’s grandmother out of the last avalanche.
In what seemed like no time at all, the three brothers, working side-by-side like they had on countless other times in their lives, had uncovered Gaby’s car, and turned it back in the direction of the cabin.
“We work well together,” Scout said, holding the pickax over his shoulder, looking very much like a mountain man.
JT nodded. “We sure do,” then they punched fists, and Hamilton walked over to Gaby who had been waiting with Ciara and Maddie.
Hamilton encircled Gaby in his arms, not ever wanting to let her go again. He felt her shaking against his body, and held her closer, tighter.
“Let me give you my coat,” he said.
“No, you’ll freeze.”
But he moved away from her for a moment, removed his coat and wrapped it around her, then encircled her once more.
“Let’s get you home,” he told her without thinking about the cabin not being her home.
She nodded as he walked her to the passenger side of her car. Once she was safely inside, he trudged around the back of the car, slid behind the wheel and proceeded to maneuver the car back on the road, then headed back to the cabin. He’d find a way to pick up his snowmobile later. Right now, it was more important to get Gaby back to the warmth of the cabin.
She flipped the heat to full blast, holding her hands
in front of the vents. The car slid and Gaby let out a little yelp. Hamilton regained control of the car then reached over and took her hand in his.
“Don’t worry, cupcake. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
She squeezed his hand. “I know,” she said. “I’ve always known.”
Chapter Fourteen
By the time Gaby and Hamilton returned to the cabin, Gaby was exhausted. She wanted to tell him that she changed her mind about giving up their baby, but she was too tired to initiate what was sure to be a ‘next step’ discussion. The euphoria of finding a way out through the trunk of her car, and then having Hamilton right there to greet her as she exited had worn off. It was replaced with the reality of what could have happened if her car hadn’t mysteriously died, if everyone’s cars hadn’t mysteriously died on that road. If they’d gone any further, well, they would all have been buried under way too much snow for their cars to even be seen.
Grandpa Win had definitely been looking after them.
“I’m really tired,” Gaby said once they stepped inside the warm and fragrant cabin. It smelled of burning pine logs, cinnamon, and, if she wasn’t mistaken, pipe tobacco. “I’d like to rest for a bit.”
“Sure. Can I make you some hot chocolate? Hot herbal tea? Something to eat? What can I do for you, Gaby? You name it and it’s yours.”
Gaby knew Hamilton would stay right by her side until she felt better, but what she really wanted was to sleep off the trauma of what had just happened . . . alone.
“Hot chocolate might be nice. I’m still a little cold.”
The shaking had started up again, very subtle this time, only in her tummy, just enough to make her a little nauseous. Plus, she wasn’t sure, but her abdomen had contracted several times on the way back to the cabin. If this had been her second baby instead of her first, she’d know if they were real contractions or false labor caused by everything she’d gone through.