Naughty & Nice
Page 29
“But then why wouldn’t she answer her phone? What if something happened?” Julia twisted her hands, the fine bones showing prominently beneath the skin. “I hate the thought of her and that sweet baby out there in the cold somewhere.”
His mom considered everyone in their town extended family, but she’d taken an immediate liking to Kaylee and her little girl.
By now the rest of the family had gathered closer. Everyone seemed to pick up on Julia’s agitation. Raina hugged her daughter closer, rubbing the baby’s back to calm her whimpers.
“I’m not getting a good feeling about this. She’s usually really good about checking in and letting me know where she’s going.” Matt glanced down at his phone again. “I don’t want to call her parents and alarm them, but this storm is getting worse by the hour.”
A second later, the room was plunged into darkness. Julia let out a small gasp and grabbed Eli’s arm.
“What was that?” someone whispered.
Eli’s heart slowed slightly. “The power’s gone out. Just hold on, everyone, the generators will kick in any minute now.”
As if on cue, the lights came back on and there was a gentle hum as all the electronics in the room powered back on and reset themselves. His parents had done an extensive upgrade, which included generators, to the main house years ago, but he doubted if Kaylee’s apartment building was similarly equipped. Even if she got home safely from the storm, she’d be stuck in the dark with the baby. In the cold.
Alone.
“I have to go.” He disentangled himself from his mother’s arm and grabbed his coat from the hall closet. After zipping it up all the way, he grabbed insulated gloves and pulled on a knit cap to cover his recently shaved head. There were several thick blankets on the top shelf of the closet, so he grabbed those, too. Just in case.
“Where are you going?” His mother appeared at his elbow, her brown eyes filled with worry. Everyone else crowded behind her.
“Are you going out in the storm? It’s coming down pretty hard,” Jackson added.
“You guys are forgetting something.” He pointed at the slightly dimmed lights. “Not everyone has generators the way we do. The rest of the city is under a blackout. Even if Kay’s at home safe, she won’t have any power. And if something has happened and she’s out there alone, it could be a while before anyone else comes along.”
Julia pulled him into a quick hug. “Be careful out there.” She tugged the ends of the hat down over his ears. He smiled at the familiar gesture. She’d done the same thing when sending him out to school in the winter as a kid.
“You know I will be.” He hated to leave her looking so worried. “Don’t worry. I put chains on my tires this morning. I’ll be fine.” He kissed her on the brow and pulled the front door open.
The blast of frigid air that hit him in the face only strengthened his resolve to check on Kaylee. What if something had happened? It was below freezing already, and since most Virginians weren’t used to this kind of weather, it was unlikely she’d be prepared for the cold if she’d gotten stalled somewhere. The image of Kay out there somewhere alone and cold without any emergency supplies quickened his step.
Luckily he’d been one of the last to arrive, so his truck was parked at the end of his parents’ driveway.
Eli loved his truck. It was hardly a flashy sports car, but it was dependable and built for a man his size. Flashy wasn’t his style and it wouldn’t have suited him anyway. He wasn’t classically handsome like his younger brothers. He looked more like a guard dog, and considering his line of work, that was more than fine with him.
Guard dogs were protectors. If there was even a chance Kay was in trouble, a protector was exactly what she needed.
* * * * *
Going out to get diapers should have been a fifteen-minute journey. Of course, getting her daughter into her coat and car seat had easily eaten up five of those minutes from the start.
Kay watched with mounting impatience as the woman in front of her loaded the checkout conveyer belt with what looked like half the store. All she wanted was to buy her diapers and get back to her car before Hope started crying again. Now it was just her luck that she’d gotten stuck in line behind someone stocking up for the apocalypse.
People are so ridiculous, she thought.
The shelves in the store had been swept clean of all the staple items such as bread, eggs, and milk. She’d figured she could run in and out since she only needed one thing, but instead she’d had to fight to get down the aisles since there were so many people in the store.
After she finally got through the line, she tucked the package of diapers into her huge purse with one hand and picked up Hope’s car seat with the other. The outside of the store was just as chaotic as the inside. The parking lot was packed and there were abandoned shopping carts everywhere.
She looked up at the sky in trepidation after she’d hooked Hope’s car seat back into the base. It was so much worse than when she’d left the apartment. It would have been smarter to just ask her dad to bring the diapers than risk getting stuck out in this storm.
Finally she was able to pull out of the crowded parking lot and back onto the main road. There was a long line of cars waiting to get to the light, so at the last minute she turned the opposite direction and headed for one of the back roads that would lead her to her apartment building.
Maybe she should have taken Matt up on his invitation to come with him to the Alexanders’. His four-wheel-drive SUV would have navigated the icy streets better. Then she could have seen Eli.
That’s the last thing you need.
Although, she probably should have accepted the ride. She patted the steering wheel of her used sedan. It got her from place to place, but it was temperamental and no match for icy, wet conditions. At the moment though, it was all she could afford.
Jackson had told her the real money in music came from owning the rights to the music itself. Most artists who weren’t songwriters made their money from touring and appearances. When he’d first signed her as part of the singing group Divine, she’d wanted to tell him she wrote songs, but she’d been too shy to show him anything she’d written.
Not that it mattered since Divine had never really caught on. They only had moderate success, so Jackson had disbanded the group and offered her a solo contract. She’d finally worked up the nerve to mention her songwriting and he’d offered to take a look at her work. Sadly, even though she’d promised to send him something, she still hadn’t followed through.
Instead she was scrimping and saving, trying to make the advance money he’d given her last a bit longer.
Her thoughts were jerked back to the present when she turned the corner onto a side street, and for a moment, it felt like the car was weightless.
“Oh my god!”
As the car slid across a patch of black ice, Kay instinctively jerked the steering wheel to the left. The sudden motion sent them sailing straight toward the side of the road. The car fishtailed and then hit the ditch with a terrifying screech of metal, which was then followed by absolute silence.
Kay had never known that quiet could be so horrifying. Then the sound of her breathing became loud in her own ears and she struggled to turn her head.
“Hope?”
It was quiet, but then she heard a soft giggle. Kay let out a relieved breath. If her daughter was giggling then she hadn’t been hurt. Actually, she wasn’t even hurt. She held up her hands in front of her face and gave her head a little shake. It must have been the front end of her car on the passenger side that had made contact. With what, she was a little scared to find out.
She sat up and reached for her seat belt. The car shifted and swayed. Her stomach lurched. “Whoa! What was that?”
Her windows were too foggy for her to see much but it had felt like she’d run into something. Had she hit the ditch on the side of the road?
“Mommy’s gotten us into some trouble this time, baby girl.”
Her handbag was on the sea
t next to her, gaping open. When her eyes lit on her cell phone, she leaned forward to grab it.
A horrible creaking groan from the front of the car halted her in her tracks. The car tipped forward slightly and Kay grabbed the steering wheel. “Okay, I won’t be doing that again.”
It felt like she was on the edge of the ditch. If she moved around too much there was the chance they’d slide in completely. She glanced back at Hope who gave her a gummy grin, exposing the two tiny teeth on the bottom row.
She couldn’t take any risks that they’d slide into the ditch because they’d land on Hope’s side of the car. She could be pinned or even crushed.
A hysterical sob bubbled up from her throat. She clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from making a sound. It wouldn’t help anything for Hope to pick up on her distress. Right now the baby didn’t seem to realize anything was wrong.
Kay pulled a hairpin out of her bun and straightened it. Leaning carefully, she poked the bottom button on her phone. There were two beeps and then she said, “Call Elliott.”
“I do not understand,” the automated voice responded.
Kay hung her head. Her movement must have shifted the car again because there was another creak and she sucked in a terrified breath. If she couldn’t get the phone to work, she’d have to reach for it. If she reached for it, the car could tip over.
She took a deep breath, poked the button with the hair pin again, and then yelled, “CALL ELLIOTT!”
* * * * *
Eli peered through the windshield, scanning the side of the road and looking for Kay’s car. There weren’t that many people out driving since the local news had predicted that the storm would bring a heavy snowfall. Most New Haven residents were probably tucked into their homes safe and sound.
It had occurred to him that perhaps the GPS tracker on her car was malfunctioning. He’d had an image of her at home, completely unaware that they thought she was missing. So he’d driven by her apartment building. Her car wasn’t in the parking lot.
She was somewhere out in the storm.
He couldn’t even imagine what had possessed Kay to go out in this kind of weather. She was a practical, down-to-earth kind of girl. There must have been a good reason for her to drive in this weather, especially when she was supposed to be spending the holidays with her parents.
His cell phone rang, vibrating through the puffy layers of his coat. At the next available opportunity, he pulled over. The previous day’s snow had hardened overnight to form nearly invisible patches of ice on the roads. He’d passed several accidents already. It was hard enough to drive carefully in all this mess, he wasn’t going to attempt to do it while on the phone.
A car whizzed by, sending a spray of snow and ice onto the side of his truck. If people didn’t slow down and drive more carefully, there would be even more accidents.
When he pulled out his cell phone, his heartbeat quickened when he saw Kay’s picture on the screen.
“Kay, where are you?” He answered without preamble.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” Her voice sounded small. There were several shuffling sounds then he didn’t hear anything else.
“Kay! What’s happening?”
It was quiet, then he heard, “Eli, can you hear me?” A second later, she gasped and said, “Oh my god!”
“Kay, where are you?” he yelled. His hands clenched around his phone. If she was in trouble, he had to find out where she was. What if he couldn’t get to her in time?
“I’m on Magnolia Avenue. I’m in a ditch. I’m not sure how far I was before we started sliding.”
“Okay, Kay, I need you to listen to me. Are you hurt? What about the baby?”
The moments she was silent were some of the longest of Eli’s life. He was on the verge of yelling into the phone again when she finally answered with “We’re both okay. I don’t think she knows anything happened.”
Relief surged through Eli. His eyes drifted closed as he realized just how close to insane he’d been worrying about her. A girl that he hadn’t seen in months should not affect him so strongly. But that was a thought for him to examine at another time.
After he’d gotten her to safety.
He straightened up and put his truck back in gear. Magnolia Avenue was just two streets over and didn’t usually see a lot of traffic. Hopefully he could get over to her in five minutes or less. God help anyone who got in his way.
“I’m not that far from you, so I should be there in a few minutes. I’m on my way. Just hold on.”
Chapter Three
The next five minutes were the longest of her life.
Kay sat completely still and focused on her breathing. In. Out. In. Out. If she thought about things for too long, she’d start to freak out. She was trapped in her car with her daughter. On the edge of a ditch.
“Eli, I hope you’re almost here.”
Kay chanced a look into the back seat. Hope was staring out the window, two fingers in her mouth. She let out a breath. Everything was going to be fine. Eli would get them out.
It was completely irrational, but she always felt like nothing too bad could ever happen when Eli was near. He was strong and confident. Without a word, he could walk into a room and take charge of it. Just talking to him on the phone had made her feel better. All she had to do was follow his instructions and he’d get her out of this mess. Kay put a hand to her lips, not surprised to find that she was smiling.
I am so ridiculous.
She was stuck in her car on the edge of a ditch, but she was smiling because it meant she’d get to see Eli. There was really no reason for her to be happy. It wasn’t as if Eli was going to be happy to see her.
Her smile faded.
He didn’t like her much. She’d always thought it was the case but nothing had pushed the point home like their bungled overnight trip to D.C. last summer. Her friend Mara had wanted Eli to spy on her brother’s new girlfriend, and Kay had somehow been roped into helping out. She rolled her eyes thinking of the crazy group of girls she was now lucky enough to call her friends. Mara had been friends with the Alexanders for years, and along with Eli’s sister-in-law, Ridley Alexander, she’d come up with a surefire plan to force Eli into helping them. Ridley had booked a singing gig for Kay in D.C. so that Eli would have to follow her up there.
Things might have actually been okay if she hadn’t trusted Ridley to make all the arrangements, too. Kay wouldn’t have planned her gig so late, too late for them to drive back home. She certainly would have never booked them into the same hotel room.
They’d both been shocked to see that the room was not only tiny but didn’t even have the usual two queen beds. The look on Eli’s face would have been comical if his look of disgust had been directed anywhere but at her. He’d been horrified at the idea of sleeping anywhere near her. After the initial shock wore off, he’d been a perfect gentleman. He’d offered her the bed and then called the front desk to request a cot, but it was too late. She’d already seen his first reaction.
What had been only slightly obvious before was plain as day when they’d gotten to that hotel room. Elliott Alexander didn’t like her.
She could have gladly lived her whole life never knowing that.
There was a loud rumble of an engine behind her and Kay’s heart leaped. Eli was here.
She could see him in her rearview mirror. He circled the back of her car and then got back in his truck. Where was he going?
He drove his truck directly across the road from her. Then he got out again. She couldn’t see what he was doing from her side mirror, but it looked like he was examining her tires. Kay rolled down her window as he approached the driver’s side door.
“Looks like you really got yourself into a jam this time.” His lips lifted at the corners. Not much of a smile, but about as close as Eli ever came to one. She couldn’t say why but she immediately burst into tears.
“Aw hell, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” Eli looked alarmed at her outburst.
“Anytime. Let’s get you out of here.” He reached for her door handle.
“No! Wait. You have to get Hope first. The car is really unsteady and keeps tilting. Get her out first.”
He immediately nodded. “Okay, I will. Hold on tight. I had some old cables in my truck so I attached them to your bumper to hold you still. Even so, it’s probably a good idea not to move. I don’t want to test how strong those cables are unless we have to.”
Eli opened the back door and climbed carefully into the back seat. There was another loud creak from the front end of the car and Kay tensed. She glanced into the back seat to see Eli examining Hope’s car seat like it was an alien device. She suppressed a nervous giggle. He was a single guy. To him it probably was.
“There’s a metal hook that latches into the top. Release that first.” She waited while he did it.” Now you have to push the big red button on the top to release her car seat from the base.”
He nodded and then pushed the button. Once he was able to lift the seat up, he moved backward slowly, then carried the baby across the street to his truck. He jogged back and unhooked the base from the backseat and set it in the street.
“Now it’s your turn. Grab my hand.”
She placed her palm in his. His fingers gripped and held tight. “Now lean forward and grab your stuff off the seat. I’m holding you so it’s okay to move forward a little.”
Kay wasn’t so sure about that, but she nodded anyway. She took a deep breath and leaned forward to grab her handbag. The car creaked a little, so she quickly leaned back, clutching her bag to her chest.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you,” Eli added.
Kay looked at the front of the car worriedly.
“I need you to trust me, angel. I’m not going to let you fall.” He squeezed her hand. “I’m pretty strong.” His lips lifted again in that maddening half smile.
His words gave her the courage to swing her legs out of the car and stand up.