Page 41 of It Couldn't Be You
She was quiet for a minute. “Okay, you know what? I’ll figure it out. Won’t be longer than a half hour.”
“You’re amazing!” I said gratefully. We hung up.
I pulled a book out of my bag and cuddled under my coat to read as the snow fell outside the car window.
Fourteen
Katie:
Help is on the way!!
Then I heard it, the loud engine of Gabriel’s truck. I sat up from my reading stupor confused. He pulled up across from my car. I slid out of my car and walked over to his truck window. He rolled it down.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, confused.
“Wow, what a greeting for someone coming to help you.”
“Sorry, it’s not that. I’m just surprised you are out here, what with the injury and all. I was expecting Katie,” I said. “I didn’t call you because I know you’re all laid up on the couch.”
“What a lovely depiction of how I’m spending my time. But Katie couldn’t leave work and tapped me in,” he said gruffly.
“I’m sorry. I can call someone else. You’re hurt!” I pulled my phone out of my coat pocket.
“Emma, I’m not immobile. I have my crutches.” He popped his hand out his car window and pushed my phone away from my face.
“Should you be driving on your pain meds?” I inquired.
“I’ve been weaning off onto the kids’ stuff; I’m totally fine. I’ve been going on drives for my sanity lately. I’ve even been to see a movie. I’m reentering the world slowly.”
I raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “Okay. I can jump it myself, anyway. I have the cables in the back. I just need your running engine.”
In about ten minutes, my car started again, and the roar was a welcome sound. I closed the hood and went to the back to put the cables away and noticed Gabe had scooted out of his truck and was hobbling in the snow on his crutches.
“Gabe, you need to be careful,” I said in a tone of maternal disapproval.
I was turning from the back of my car when I got hit on the head with a little snowball. I squealed, wiping the snow off, when I saw Gabe crunched over in the snow laughing.
“You literally riskedthe health of your legto hit me with a snowball?”
“It’s the perfect time. You won’t take vengeance on me when I can barely walk.”
“Yeah, I’d never stoop that low,” I said in mock horror, then quickly gathered a handful of snow and threw it at him. It wasn’t necessarily graceful, or even a formed snowball at all, but it was quick and landed right on his chest.
He threw another one at me from his crouched position, hitting me on the shoulder.
So, I made a big snowball and walked straight over to him. We were both shaking with laughter, barely able to breathe, as I smashed it on his head.
“You are a cheat,” he said as he shook the snow out of his hair. I sat down in the snow beside him, breathless from the laughing, cheeks sore.
“You are the cheat, thinking you could use your crutches as an excuse.” I gave him a shove. “You know I’m vengeful.”
“You are vengeful.” He said, dusting snow out of my hair.
I looked over at my running car. “I should get going. I’m nervous it’ll die again.”
“You should go by the shop and have them look at the battery. Make sure you don’t need a replacement,” he advised.
“I don’t think I need a new one.”
