Page 33 of We Redeemed the Rain

I shook my head as I had that thought. How ridiculous. Of course I could.

Will I know him when I see him? Will he know me?

The closer I got to the ranch, the hotter, more stressed, and more flustered I felt—sweaty palms, dipping stomach, warm neck, fluttering heart. My body was responding like a hormonal teenager to the possibility of him.

I slammed my fist against the steering wheel. “Farm Road 821! Where are you?”

My maps app told me to turn on a road that didnotexist.

The phone buzzed. My mom again. I growled in frustration. If the screen lit up one more time, I was going to roll down the window and toss it into a corn field.

I checked my GPS and decided to turn around. My map rerouted, and a canned British voice directed me to drive into the ditch alongside the road then veer off into oblivion. Of course.

I was not above stopping and asking for directions, but there were no houses, no businesses, no passing cars. There were trees, fences, and rolling fields. That was it. Were there power lines? Did they even get electricity out here?

I turned the Prius around and drove back the way I came. Scanning the darkness around my vehicle, I finally located a turn off, approximately where the GPS had indicated for me to turn before. I stopped at the entrance. Thedirtroad disappeared into a dark wooded area. There were no signs or markings for Meadowbrook.

A dark, dirt road. Not exactly what I wanted to be driving down in the middle of a rainstorm. But it was the only left hand turn on this entire stretch of abysmal highway. Jesse had said it would be a dirt slash gravel road. I didn’t see any gravel…but in my defense, I couldn’t see much of anything. So it had to be Farm Road 821.

I turned nice and slow. A soft slushy sound started under my tires. Puddles probably. As I accelerated to fifteen mph, the tires completely stopped spinning. Being a Colorado girl used to driving in the snow, I knew I needed to turn the traction control off. I reached to the left and tapped the switch. Gassing it, the RPMs climbed and the Prius moved forward, so I assumed all was well. I leaned over my steering wheel, peering through the rain.

The road didn’t appear to be flooded or anything.

I kept my slow momentum for a minute until the trees obscured the main road behind me, despite the red flags raising left and right.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

As my gut tried to alert me that I'd made a mistake, my brain dug in its heels. I had concluded, for better or worse, this road was in fact Farm Road 821. I was exhausted and out of other options, so my good common sense could suck it.

I continued on for another few feet until I heard and felt a terrifyingfloomp, as my front tires sunk downward.

Panic gripped my throat and immediate heat stung my eyes.

“No, no,no! This cannot be happening!”

My phone buzzed.

“Not right now, Mom!” I scolded without even confirming her name on the screen.

I threw the Prius in reverse. Tires frantically spun and a loudwhirrrrjoined the cacophony of the pounding rain.

My head dropped to the steering wheel. “Thiscannotbe happening!”

Repeatedly putting the car into forward then reverse and spinning tires for five minutes straight did nothing but make the situation worse. The forward tilt grew noticeable. The rear end now higher than the front.

I picked up my phone and called that number—the nice Jesse guy.

Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.

Hot sticky red erupted over my face. I glanced at the clock. It was 10:48 p.m.

The ringing abruptly stopped and faint background noise filled the line. Relief flooded my chest. “Thank goodness, Jesse?”

But a canned woman’s voice answered. “Hello, you’ve reached Meadowbrook Ranch. We are not able to come to the phone right now?—”

“Argh!Voice mail!?” I jammed my thumb on the disconnect button. Light reflected off the downpour and water beat the windows. I stared into space, letting the sound and the horror of this situation fully register. It was raining cats and dogs. I hated that expression, but it was accurate. I imagined small animals hitting my windshield would sound similar.

My wipers were full speed but I couldn’t see past the hood.

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