“Sure thing. I’m sorry we didn’t stop to switch off sooner.” Zach checked his phone and frowned. “It doesn’t look like there are any services at the next exit, but there should be a station at the one after that. It’s about twelve miles away.”

  “I should have thought to check the gas gauge when we hit Bloomington, but we should be fine,” Tim said, studying the Jeep’s display. “It looks like we still have about forty miles’ range.”

  By the time they pulled off the road and into the lot of the gas station that was the only business at the interchange, they discovered it was closed. “I suppose we should have expected places might close on Christmas Eve, especially in a rural area like this,” Zach said with a sigh. “Here, eat one of Alma’s biscuits and have some of this coffee—it’s still warm. Then we can switch places and I’ll drive the rest of the way.”

  “Is there anything down this road?” Tim asked as they made short work of the bacon biscuits. He offered the thermos’s single cup back to Zach, who shook his head.

  “Looks like just farmland for miles in either direction. But from what I can tell, there’s a twenty-four-hour station at the next exit in another ten miles or so.”

  “We should still be good. The range indicator shows twenty-five miles remaining.” They quickly exchanged seats, the icy sleet stinging wherever it hit their skin. Tim buckled up as Zach put the Jeep in gear and maneuvered back onto the interstate.

  “No wonder your shoulders were so tense last night,” Zach remarked after a few minutes, “if you had to fight a crosswind like this the whole time.”

  Heat flared in Tim’s chest at the comment and the memories it evoked of Zach’s hands on his bare skin. He’d been almost too out of it to enjoy it, but only almost. Fortunately Zach was too focused on the road to notice Tim’s fluster.

  Tim took a deep breath and tried to relax now that he wasn’t driving, but the wind increased, buffeting the car enough that Tim could feel it despite Zach’s careful driving and attempts to keep the Jeep in the tracks left by previous traffic. They crawled down the interstate until they reached the next exit and pulled into the gas station. Zach hopped out of the car, credit card in hand, only to stop short.

  Tim stuck his head out the window. “What’s wrong?”

  “The display is blank,” Zach replied.

  Tim got out of the car to see what was going on when a voice from the door of the QuickMart interrupted him. “Power’s out, fellas, and that means the pumps don’t work.”

  Well, shit.

  “Do you know how extensive the outage is?” Zach asked when the attendant walked out to join them.

  “Not for sure, but it’s at least twenty miles because I’ve had calls from all over checking if we have power here.”

  “We don’t have enough gas to get that far,” Tim said. “What are we going to do now?”

  “The city council’s opened the high school gym for people to take shelter—they’ve got enough generators to run portable heaters, and the scouts have their cook stoves set up to make dinner,” the station attendant said. “I’m taking the perishables from the store and headed that way. I can give you a ride if you want. It won’t be fancy or nothing, but it’ll be warm and dry. You can leave your car here until the power comes back on and the pumps are working again.”

  “How is this my life?” Tim groaned, dropping his head into his hands.

  Zach patted him on the shoulder. “C’mon, it could be worse. We could have gotten here after this gentleman left, and I’d be looking for the nearest sheriff’s office again.” The attendant quirked an eyebrow at that, but he didn’t rescind the offer, so he must not have taken them for dangerous felons. “We’d be happy to join you, if you don’t mind. It won’t be the first time this trip we’ve had to throw ourselves on the mercy of strangers, and they haven’t failed us yet.”

  The attendant didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. “You know, ’tis the season and goodwill to all and blah blah blah,” he muttered. “Just let me toss the milk and eggs and whatever into the pickup and we can head over there.”

  “At least let us help you load up,” Tim offered. Their new friend nodded and headed back into the QuickMart. “I’m Tim Wyatt,” he said, pulling off his glove and extending his hand once they got inside. “And this is Zach Whelan.”

  “Pete Simmons,” he replied, giving them each a quick handshake. “If you’ll grab anything that looks like it might spoil out of the refrigerator case, I’ll get a crate to put it all in.”

  They pulled a few gallons of milk, three dozen eggs, and some jugs of orange juice from the case. Pete loaded them into a plastic crate, then added a few bags of popcorn from a rack against the wall before flipping the lid closed. He hefted it onto a shoulder, locked the door, and led them to a pickup truck with the station’s logo on the side.

  “One of you’ll have to climb in the back. It’ll be tight, I’m afraid. This pickup wasn’t made to carry more than two adults,” Pete said.

  “It’s fine,” Zach said as he opened the door and climbed into the narrow back seat, leaning forward and giving Tim an excellent view of his ass. “I’m bendy.”

  And that was not at all the image Tim needed in his head at the moment. He shook his head to clear it and took the passenger seat. He’d have to call Melissa when they got to the gym and let her know he probably wasn’t going to make it for Christmas Eve like he’d promised. He hoped she’d give him credit for trying, but that wouldn’t make things any easier for Megan when he wasn’t there in the morning to watch her open gifts.

  One more failure to add to a list that was far longer than Tim wanted to admit.

  “Hey.” Zach poked Tim’s shoulder. “It’s not Christmas yet. I still have time to win our bet.”

  The bet. Tim had forgotten all about that. He’d been too focused on his growing attraction to Zach and the increasingly desperate measures they’d taken to get this far. Of course Zach was just in it for the bet.

  No, that wasn’t fair. Zach couldn’t have been more helpful. His comment was probably an attempt to lighten Tim’s spirits, nothing more.

  It was a good thing Pete had offered them a ride to the school, because Tim didn’t think the Jeep had enough fuel left to make it there and back. It took almost ten minutes driving through farmland to get there, and the parking lot around the building was already filling up with cars when they arrived.

  Zach picked up the plastic crate from the truck bed and gestured for Pete to lead the way. The inside looked like any school gymnasium Tim had ever seen, with basketball hoops at either end and racks of mats and different kinds of balls lining the walls. Thick extension cords ran under the doors, connecting several space heaters to the generators he assumed were outside. Two adults were instructing a mixed group of Boy and Girl Scouts to set up cots and unroll sleeping bags and open a folding table to hold propane cook stoves.

  “Who are your friends, Pete?” A motherly-looking woman walked toward them, holding a clipboard. “I’ve been checking off families as they get here or we’re sure they’re sheltering somewhere safe, but I don’t recognize these two.”

  “Stranded travelers,” Pete answered, gesturing for Zach to bring the crate over to the Scouts’ table. “Tim and Zach, and I don’t know much beyond that except I couldn’t leave them to freeze.”

  “Well, of course you couldn’t. I’m Nina Bolger,” she said, smiling warmly at them. “I’m the principal of this zoo. It may be a bit chaotic, but we can always make room for a few more.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Bolger,” Zach said with his easy charm that Tim envied. “We’re trying to get to Chicago so Tim can spend Christmas with his daughter, but Mother Nature has other ideas, I’m afraid.”

  “Oh, that’s a shame. I know spending Christmas here with us won’t be the same, but there will be more than a few kids running around and opening presents in the morning,” Ms. Bolger said. “And maybe we’ll get lucky and the power will come back on soon enough that you’ll be able to get there before the day is over tomorrow. We’re less than 150 miles away.”

  In normal circumstances, that would be nothing, but at the speeds they’d been able to drive so far, that was another five hours at least. If the power came on during the night, maybe they’d be okay, but Tim wasn’t holding his breath. “I hope so,” he said because both Zach and Ms. Bolger seemed to be waiting for an answer, but his heart wasn’t in it.

  Despite Ms. Bolger’s characterizing the shelter as chaos, Tim thought it was surprisingly well-organized. Someone had brought in a fir tree, which was quickly set up in a bucket of water in one corner of the room. One of the scout leaders started an art corner where kids strung cranberries and popcorn from the bags Pete had contributed and made cut-paper snowflakes to decorate it. Another group of scouts was cooking mac and cheese and hot dogs on the camp stoves. The other scout leader had an enameled percolator and a large kettle of water boiling on another stove, and the older scouts roamed the room passing around cups of coffee or tea or hot chocolate to anyone who needed to warm up.

  By the time it was dark outside, everyone had been fed and some of the younger kids were starting to look sleepy. They perked up immediately when the door opened and someone dressed in a Santa outfit started passing out candy canes and chocolate bars.

  “Isn’t that Pete?” Zach murmured to Tim after they’d both had Snickers bars handed to them.

  “’Tis the season and blah blah blah,” Tim answered with a grin.

  Ms. Bolger had started a Christmas carol singalong when Tim remembered he needed to call Melissa. As much as he didn’t want to deal with her, the sooner he got it over with, the better, but he’d never be able to hear in the gym. He considered texting her, but that was the coward’s way out.

  The hallway outside the gym was frigid and dark but private and quiet as he called Melissa’s number and waited for her to pick up.

  “Where are you?” she demanded without preamble.

  “About 150 miles south of Chicago, in a town with no power, out of gas, and taking shelter in the high school gym with a good half the town,” Tim replied. “My flight was canceled, and I’ve been trying to get there any way I can ever since.”

  She huffed in a way that he’d grown all too familiar with over the years of their marriage. “I should never have told Megan you’d be here. You’ve never kept your promises before, but I believed you when you said you wanted to do better.”

  “That’s not fair,” he protested. “I can’t control the weather. And I’ve certainly tried my damn best. Amtrak from Dallas to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and then driving despite the weather ever since. If the power weren’t out and I could refill the rental’s gas tank, I wouldn’t be stopping now, but the tank is on Empty, and I don’t feel like spending the night freezing on the side of the road.”

  “Excuses, Tim. You can make all you want, but they’re still only excuses. You said you’d be here and you aren’t. And Megan is four. She’s not going to understand.”

  And that in a nutshell was why they’d divorced. Even when Tim was blameless, he was the one at fault as far as Melissa was concerned.

  “Fine. Can I talk to her, at least?”

  “Just a minute. She’s watching ’Twas the Night Before Christmas with my parents.”

  Great. So now he not only wasn’t going to make it on time, but he was dragging her away from her grandparents, so if he did show up, he’d have even more strikes against him.

  “Hi, Daddy!”

  “Hi, baby,” he replied.

  “I’m not a baby anymore,” she said.

  “You’ll always be my baby,” he insisted. “I have bad news. I’m stuck in the storm outside and won’t get there tonight like I’d planned. I’m still coming, but it might be tomorrow night or the next morning before I get there, depending on how soon the storm passes.”

  “But Daddy, you promised!”

  Like he didn’t already feel bad enough. “I know I did, and I’m sad I can’t be there too. But we still have plans for the day after Christmas, right? Ice skating and the zoo?”

  “Are you going to miss that too?” she asked, sounding way too much like Melissa.

  “I’m going to do everything I can to get there,” he promised. “But the storm has to stop enough that I can drive safely, because as much as I want to be there, if I get hurt in an accident, that would be even worse than missing Christmas.”

  “I don’t want you to get hurt, Daddy.”

  “I know, Meggie. You have fun opening your presents tomorrow morning with Mommy and Gramma and Grampa, okay?”

  “Okay, Daddy. Get here soon!”

  “As soon as I can. I love you, baby.”

  “I love you too, Daddy. Bye!”

  Tim shoved the phone back in his pocket and ran his hands through his hair. At least Megan wasn’t angry with him. He could deal with the rest.

  The carols were still going strong when he walked back into the gym. He tried to put on a cheerful expression, or at least a neutral one, but Zach must have seen through it.

  “Was she upset?” he asked, patting a spot next to him on the quilt he was sitting on.

  “Not as much as I expected,” Tim answered, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. “She’s disappointed, but so am I. I think she’ll be fine once I get there.”

  “Kids are resilient.” Zach stifled a yawn. “And now I understand why you fell asleep so early yesterday. Driving in a blizzard is exhausting.”

  “I’d offer you a massage, but we don’t have quite as much privacy as we did last night.” And if he was feeling nostalgic for a double bed in a stranger’s house, it was proof of how much he’d like to get his hands on Zach. This wasn’t the time or place, and the way Tim’s luck continued to play out, it never would be.

  Zach rolled his jacket up as a makeshift pillow and pulled one side of the quilt over himself. “Just poke me if I snore or anything,” he murmured, his eyes already closing.

  “Sleep well,” Tim said softly.

  ZACH DIDN’T know what time it was when someone shook him awake. He blinked a couple of times to see Pete shaking Tim the same way. “Sorry to wake you up, but the power’s back on. If you want to grab some coffee for the road, I’ll drive you back to the station so you can fill up and get back on your way to Chicago.”

  That woke Zach up faster than any caffeine could do. “Give us five minutes,” he said. Even if Tim needed longer to wake up, Zach could take the first shift. Pete’s news had him completely reenergized.

  “It’ll take me that long to get my own coffee,” Pete said. “I’ll meet you at the door we came in through.”

  Tim scrubbed his hands over his face, looking adorably ruffled—and sexily scruffy, but that would have to wait for another time. “Come on. Let’s do this while the power is working. You never know how long it’ll stay on.”

  Tim nodded, still not talking, and followed Zach to the stoves where the scouts had coffee and hot water staying warm. Zach thanked the girl who served them and headed to the gym door to meet Pete. The air outside was even colder than the night before, something he hadn’t thought possible, but it finished the job of waking him up. And the power was still on when they got back to the station and filled up the tank—and refreshed their store of snacks at Pete’s insistence. He shrugged off their thanks, wishing them a safe drive and a Merry Christmas.

  The sun was starting to lighten the eastern horizon—and maybe that was a good sign that the weather was finally clearing, since it wasn’t actively snowing or sleeting for the first time since they’d left Dallas. Zach let the car warm up for a few minutes before putting it in gear and turning onto I-55 northbound. The road surface was still rutted and slippery, but the wind had gentled, making it easier to drive into and reducing the amount of snow blowing across the road.

  “I didn’t thank Ms. Bolger,” Tim said suddenly. “We should have at least said goodbye after they took us in like that.”

  “We could go back,” Zach offered, because whatever his ex-wife said about Tim being absent and distant, of course he’d feel guilty about leaving the shelter without saying thank you.

  “A part of me just wants to get to Chicago before anything else can go wrong.” Tim sighed. “I can send a thank-you note to the school, I suppose.”

  “I’m sure she’d appreciate that,” Zach said. “And nobody’s going to blame you for taking your chance to get to Chicago. It’s early enough we might even be there by lunch.”

  He probably shouldn’t have tempted fate like that, but the words were out before he could think better of it. Fortunately the universe seemed to have forgiven them for whatever had caused all the delays up until now, because while it was still slow going, the day was bright and clear and nothing interfered with the drive, not even the snowplow that came through and sprayed them with slush. A few swipes of the windshield wipers cleared that easily enough, and they kept on until the Chicago skyline appeared on the horizon.

  “Plug in the address so I can drop you off,” Zach suggested.

  “I don’t need an app to give you directions,” Tim said. “Just stay on 55 until it ends at Lake Shore Drive, take the Drive north, and get off at North Avenue.”

  Zach had changed flights plenty of times at O’Hare, but he’d never spent any time exploring the city. He could take a few days now to see some sights before he had to bring the Jeep back to the dealer in Missouri. If he’d gotten it through a rental car agency, he could return it in Chicago, even if he had to pay an extra charge for a one-way rental, and arrange to fly back to Dallas, but that wasn’t an option. He couldn’t regret any of it, though, for the time it had afforded him to get to know Tim.

  He was about to ask Tim if he’d thought about when and how he planned to return to Dallas, but his attention was stolen by the vista of Lake Michigan when they turned onto Lake Shore Drive, framed by skyscrapers and a surprising amount of what looked like open parkland under the snow. The water was choppy, with a rime of ice along the shoreline attesting to the lingering power of the storm. Tim identified some of the more famous buildings they passed, and shortly after they crossed over the Chicago River, he pointed out their exit.

 

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