Page 3 of A Moon Lake Christmas Hero

But just as I wanted to make the turn, I saw a dog on my side of the street.

“Shit.” I slammed on the brakes…and nothing. My foot went clear down to the floorboard. I pumped again, but it didn’t change. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” I cranked the steering wheel farther to the left to avoid the damn dog, who didn’t budge.

“Erin?”

Everything slowed down.

But not enough.

I gripped the steering wheel, grazed the dog, hit the gravel on the soft snow-covered shoulder.

The edge flew toward me. Too fast—I was going way too fast.

I pulled the handbrake and closed my eyes, veered away from the edge to soften my impact into the metal railing, praying it was strong enough to stop me.

There was an ear-splitting screeching sound. I was flung forward into my seatbelt, then everything slowly came to a stop.

I opened my eyes.

The impact had shattered my windshield into a million tiny cracks.

“Erin? Erin? What happened?”

Uff.

I blinked, then looked around. At least I stopped the car.

The airbag didn’t deploy because I didn’t hit the railing head-on and all that hard. It was more like a slip-and-slide to a stop. Thank God I was already slowing down.

Shit, the dog.

I opened the door, fumbled with my seatbelt, then realized the door was wedged against the railing. I climbed over and got out through the passenger side.

I’d completely forgotten about the earpiece until my phone dangled on the other side and hit my thigh.

“Jessie?” I reeled it in, then pushed it into the back pocket of my jeans.

“Erin. What happened?”

“There was a dog on the road.” I looked back at the street. “I tried to avoid it. Crashed the car. Shit.”

“What? Erin? You crashed the car? Are you okay?”

I ran towards the whimpering bundle on the street, nausea building in my stomach and tightening my throat. “I hit it. There’s blood. Oh, God. I’m so sorry.”

“Erin.”

There was a male voice on the phone. It sounded urgent and calming at the same time. “Where are you?”

I tried to suppress my sobs. “Don’t know—some vista point.”

“At the highway, by the lake?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“We’ll be there in a second. Stay on the phone with me. Are you hurt?”

“I hit a dog. My brakes didn’t work, and I hit a dog.”

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