Fall From Grace(89)

I didn’t know by whose standards we would call this an emergency, but I would have sprouted wings myself and flew to see those ancient blue eyes if I couldn’t drive.

Shane opened the passenger side door and knocked his boots on the side of the well, spraying snow all over.

“Hurry up, just get in, I want to get out on the road ahead of this storm if we can.”

Shane gave me an exasperated look.  “We could just stay here, Grace.  We don’t have to go to Tucker.  I promise, I’ll keep you safe.”

“Shane.  I’m going.  If you want to stay.  Stay.”

The inside of the Jeep was still cold, and mist drifted from our lips each time we spoke.  I shivered and turned on the heat and defrost, and tried to blow some warmth into my hands.  When the air seemed warm enough not to cause my fingers to shake, I plugged in my GPS system and keyed in our destination.  Outside the snow fell faster.

I pulled over the snowdrifts with my four-wheel drive; the wind howled against the car.  “Looks like the angels are having one hell of a pillow fight!” I laughed.

“Pillow fight?” Shane whispered.

“Yeah, it’s an old saying, but Conner said it when it started to snow the other night.”  I glanced at his expression, his head hung low and his arms were folded tight across his chest.  “What’s wrong?  You don’t believe in that stuff or just not in old wives tales.”

I stopped at a red light and waited for his answer.

He shrugged and looked out the snowy window.  “I don’t give much thought to angels,” he said and shivered.

I took the Lincoln Tunnel and emerged into a wintery wonderland worse than what we came from, nothing that side of the tunnel seemed to have been plowed.  Shane buckled himself in his seatbelt, but still sat at the edge of the passenger seat; knuckles white clutching my dashboard.

Shane’s phone went off.  When he answered it, I could hear Conner’s voice on the other side.  The howling winds hitting against the Jeep made the rest of the conversation hard to hear.

After a brief conversation, Shane clicked off his phone.  “They made it there okay.  Conner says the roads are getting worse. They are talking about white out conditions on I-80.”

Thick chunks of snow collided with the windshield; the wipers could barely stand against the attack.  “We can’t go back now.  It’s fine. Look,” I pointed through an almost opaque windshield. “The roads aren’t so bad.”  Whom was I kidding?  I was insane driving in this!  I gripped the wheel as tightly as I could.

Shane glared at me openmouthed.

I pressed harder on the gas pedal to stop him from looking at me and it worked.  He snapped his head forward and crossed his arms glowering out the window.  “Lea is right, you really do have some sort of a death wish,” he whispered.

I let the statement go.  Fighting with him right then would cause me not to concentrate on the road that I could no longer see.  All I needed to do was stand in front of those ancient blue eyes. I needed to know if Blake was who I’d been looking for.

“Do you want to explain to me why you are driving in this insane blizzard to get to someone you don’t want to be with?  Or am I wrong about you and Tucker?”

He would never understand.  “I don’t want to be with Tucker.  Let me just concentrate on driving.”

He kicked the floorboards with his foot.  “Whatever.”

We continued the drive in hours of eerie silence; nothing but the muted sounds of the snow closing down and suffocating the earth.  Would this be what death would be like for me when my eternity was done?  Silent, cold and empty; no heaven at all?