Page 9 of Blizzard Babies
“Charli!” Whitney lets out a yelp as the SUV ahead of us spins almost in a circle and then careens right toward us.
I have no choice.
Either I have to jerk the wheel or risk getting hit head on.
“Hang on!” I yell, yanking the wheel to the right and praying there’s nothing for me to hit.
“Shit!” Laurel’s voice is the last thing I hear as we lurch down over the embankment.
Chapter 5
Laurel
It seems like forever as we go over the side of the highway and start flying down a hill at top speed. In reality, it was probably only five or six seconds, but it feels like an eternity until the SUV comes to a stop in a snowbank. The SUV is intact and no airbags deployed, so it takes another few seconds for it to sink in that we’re okay. At least, it seems like it.
“Everyone okay?” Charli asks in a soft, shaky voice.
“I think so.” Sara twists in her seat. “You guys okay back there?”
“I’m okay.” Whitney looks at me. “Laurel?”
I unconsciously rub my hand over my stomach. “I think so.”
“God, that was scary.” Charli lets out a breath.
“It all happened so fast,” Sara adds.
“You kept us straight,” Whitney whispers.”
“I tried,” Charli says. “Now I guess we need to assess the damage.”
We all look around, but most of what I see is snow. Lots and lots of snow, accumulated over the last couple of months as well as what’s currently coming down. “I think we’re down pretty far,” I say after a moment.
Charli unlocks the doors but when I try to open mine, I can’t budge it.
“Shit.” Charli seems to be having the same problem. “We’re trapped by snow.”
“If you roll down the windows, we may be able to get out,” Sara says.
“Wait!” I yell out. “If we all roll down our windows, the car’s going to fill with snow and then we’re going to be cold and wet.”
“Right.” Charli unbuckles her seat belt. “Let me do mine. Maybe I can ease out the window and see where we are.”
“Be careful,” Sara says.
“No cell service,” Whitney mutters, looking at her phone.
“Me either,” I say after I dig out my phone.
“If I can get my head out, maybe I can figure out where we are,” Charli says, slowly inching down her window. The snow isn’t packed very tightly, and it flutters through the opening and onto Charli and the seat as she tries to minimize how much gets in.
“Fuck, it’s cold,” Whitney says, shivering as frigid air filters through the SUV. “Maybe you shouldn’t go out there, Charli.”
“If I don’t, and our phones don’t have service, we might be here until the storm is over,” she replies. “And that could be much worse.”
A faint pain in my abdomen gives me pause, and I take a deep breath, trying to focus on our situation instead of the growing discomfort. I had some weird twinges all morning, but Braxton-Hicks contractions are normal at this point in pregnancy, so I didn’t give them much thought since I had them when I was pregnant with Matthew too.
Now, however, I’m trying to ignore the fact that I’ve had several of these odd, mildly painful contractions in the last hour or so.
