Page 62 of Lone Star Longing
Chapter Fourteen
BECK WAS TRYING TOkeep his cool for Lacey’s sake, but yeah, this storm was a bad one. The road was dark anyway, even with the flashes of lightning, and he had his wipers on full-speed, but he could barely see beyond the hood of his truck. His headlights just reflected the torrential rain back at him.
He wondered if his cell had service, since he had a different provider. He thought about asking Lacey to unlock it for him and check, but he didn't want to scare her. He would just keep driving until he found a place where he could pull over and wait out the storm.
He tried to recall this road, but he couldn't think of any pull-outs, or any truck stops, or gas stations, or any place like that where they could take a breather.
“Can you remember passing a restaurant or anything along this road when we came down?”
“No, but we weren’t looking, since we had food.”
“There was a rest stop, though, wasn't there? Just with picnic tables? A place we can park for a while?”
“Yeah, I think so, but I don't remember if it was on this side of the road or the other. And I don't remember how far it was from the highway.”
He didn't know how far they’d come from the highway, to be honest, since he reduced his speed. The fact that no one else was on the road scared him a little. Not this was a highly traveled road, but he had to wonder if other drivers knew something he didn’t.
“Get my phone. The code is nineteen twenty twenty-one. See if I have any service, and maybe you can pull up a map to see if it shows the rest area.”
“I thought you weren’t worried?”
Yeah, he’d known that suggestion would make her nervous.
“I can keep going, sure, or we could wait a few minutes and let it pass, and I won’t have to be driving twenty miles an hour just so I can see the road.”
The minute she picked his phone out of the cupholder where he had stored it, the noise on the roof magnified.
“Shit. Hail.” He brought the truck to a crawl as ice pellets bounced off the hood of the truck, pinged the window. Thankfully, they weren’t big enough to crack the windshield.
Yet.
And worse, in this part of the state, hail could mean tornadoes. They’d never see one coming.
“You have service!” She practically yelled it, and he wasn't sure if it was because she was relieved, or because she wanted to be heard over the sound of the storm.
“Find my map app and see if you can locate a place where we can pull over.” He was going about fifteen miles an hour now, but he didn't want to stop and get stuck in the mud. And if by chance there were other cars on the road, he didn't want to get hit.
“I see it!” Her voice rang though the cab. “About seven miles ahead. On this side.”
He accelerated a little. “How straight is the road between here and there?”
“Almost arrow straight.” She turned to look at him. “Why?”
“As long as I won’t have any surprising turns, I’m going to speed up a little. The sooner we pull over the better.”
“Okay.” She turned her attention back to the phone. “I’ll let you know if any turns are coming up.”
He nodded with a smile. “That will be helpful.” And maybe if she focused on that, she wouldn't be so afraid.
They drove in tense silence as he guided the truck down the road, and she counted down the number of miles to their destination. The hail let up, thankfully, as they progressed.
Finally the reflective line on the side of the road veered off, as she told him to turn in. He saw the silhouettes of the picnic shelters and knew they were as safe as he could make them. He put the truck in park and sat back in his seat. He hadn’t realized how wound up he was until now.
“What’s the weather app say?” he asked. “How big is this thing? Any warnings?”
“Flash flood,” she said as she tapped his screen. “Looks to be the entire distance between us and home.”
