Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Hayes
T he roads are a goddamn mess. It’s hard to comprehend how the conditions deteriorated so quickly, but I’m used to driving in the snow and ice.
You don’t turn down Sunday dinner at Nana’s, even if you have to drive in a blizzard to get there. Morris’s grandmother cooks from scratch, and it’s something we don’t miss.
“Mother Nature is pissed,” Hael says from the front passenger seat. My twin chuckles, turning the radio down, like that might help me see better in the whiteout conditions. “Maybe we should have slept at Nana’s.”
“Seriously?” Morris asks from the back seat. “Yeah, I can see all three of us cuddled up on that full-size bed in the closet she calls a guest room.”
My gaze flicks to the rearview mirror, but his massive self takes up the entire thing. He scratches his thick blond beard, and I refocus on the road before I tell him to take out his ridiculous man bun because it’s blocking my view. That would be a dick move, since I’m unable to see out the ice-covered back window anyway.
“I would have taken the couch,” Hael says with a snort.
“That helps.” I scoff, barely cutting my eyes at him before refocusing on the road. “Morris and I would totally fit without you.”
“What the fuck is that?” Morris growls, and a half second later, his meaty hand ends up by the dash as he points at something in the distance.
It’s a set of car lights, but they’re slightly obscured. However, that’s down past our turnoff to head home.
“It’s probably someone pulled over, hoping it’ll clear up,” Hael says.
“If they pulled off the road in this, they won’t be getting back on,” Morris says grimly. “Drive by. We need to check if they’re okay.”
I frown as my hand levitates next to the blinker that I was about to flip on.
He’s right, though.
As much as I want to get home, climb into bed, and have a good night’s sleep before the work week starts tomorrow, that’s not how things go up here. These temperatures can kill a person within hours—less than that under certain circumstances.
“Check out that car,” Hael says, like I can’t see the same shit he can. “Shit, it’s all wedged in the snowbank.”
“Dammit,” Morris growls, tossing his door open and jumping out before the truck is even fully stopped.
“He never moves that fast. That’s a bad sign, isn’t it?” Hael unclips his seat belt and follows Morris’s lead.
I have no idea if the shoulder will be safe.
By the looks of that car, it’s not .
I leave the truck running and turn on the hazard lights. Pushing my door open, I’m hit with an ungodly rush of cold air. I make sure I’m not about to lock us out of the vehicle and head for the car.
Hael and Morris have already made it to the car, and they dig the snow from around the door, making space so it can be opened. Damn, the driver ended up deep in one of the huge snowbanks. The only bright side is they didn’t hit a tree, pole, or something else equally unforgiving.
Morris shoves himself off the ground, ripping the door open. Hael barely has time to scramble out of the way or be smacked with the metal of the car door.
“Arbor, what the hell?” Morris growls, bending and sticking his head inside the vehicle.
My eyes widen. He hasn’t shut up about her and her death-trap car. He even talked Hael into helping him work on it for free. Not only that, I haven’t been able to get her scent out of my mind since she came into the gym.
“Mr. Morris?” Her voice is small, and my chest gets tight.
“It’s just Morris, sweetheart. Jesus Christ, are you and the baby okay?” he asks, squatting to get closer to her eye level.
“I think so,” she says, running a hand over her extremely swollen stomach. “The airbag didn’t deploy, which is probably a good thing. It was a very gentle crash. More of a sliding on the ice, then a pretty soft landing, thanks to the snow.”
Hael’s eyes are as big as mine as he studies her stomach. He swipes his long brown curls back from his face and stares like he’s never seen a pregnant woman. “We need to call 911.”
“I did,” she says, sounding a little dazed. “They said they would send someone out, but there’s a big crash…” She white knuckles the steering wheel. “I should have told them I think I’m in labor. I was going to, but my phone died. I didn’t have any signal at my cabin, and?—”
“Holy shit,” I whisper, suddenly feeling like my face must resemble Hael’s.
“Has your water broken?” Morris asks, reaching around her to unclip her seat belt. “How long have you been stuck here?”
“No, and not long, maybe a contraction or two. Okay, I think this one makes number three.”
“Do you plan to get your ass up here, Hayes?” Morris snaps.
Fuck.
He knows I was a combat medic, and, as such, fully trained in delivering babies. You see some crazy shit during natural disaster deployments, so it’s part of the readiness course. I’ve just never had to use that knowledge…it’s all theoretical.
“Whoa, I thought I was seeing double for a second, but I didn’t hit my head…” She laughs awkwardly.
“Jesus.” Morris lifts her out of the car, like she weighs nothing, and glances at Hael. “Call someone and get her car towed to the shop.”
“Would one of you mind grabbing my hospital bag out of the back seat?” she asks as Morris stomps her toward the truck.
“I’ve got it,” I call back, meeting my twin’s eyes. “Holy fucking shit.”
“Yeah,” he says, looking a little dazed. “She’s really pretty. Did you catch a whiff of her scent? Damn.”
The urge to punch that stupid look off his face washes over me from nowhere, and I clench my fists to keep from following through. I need him to join the land of the living and actually help right now.
“Call someone from the shop and tell them to get her car as soon as it’s safe to bring the tow truck out,” I remind him, climbing into the driver’s seat to shut off her car. Her purse lies open on the passenger seat, and I snag it too.
What the hell is going on?
She’s pregnant and tried to drive herself to the hospital in the middle of a snowstorm alone. Even if she had no cell service, she’s super pregnant.
Where is her baby’s father?