Page 4 of Santa's Mistletoe Playbook

“Yep.” He tapped his phone, then reached over and tugged one of Danica’s massive bags off the conveyor belt. “Jeez, Danni, what do you have in this thing?”

“Every stitch of warm clothes I own.” She hoisted her second large bag from the fast-moving conveyor belt.

Bryson spotted his duffle, grabbed the long strap, and lifted it over his shoulder. Once they had their bags, Bryson led them a short distance outside to the line of waiting cars. “Come on, Danni, the driver is at the back of this line.”

“Great.” The sideways blowing snow made it difficult for her to see. She grimaced at her over-sized bags and spit out a renegade snowflake. “Can’t we wait until he pulls up here?”

Bryson stepped over and grabbed one of her bags, and together they rolled them through the deep snow to the back of the line. How convenient it would be if her luggage wheels were equipped with four-wheel drive.

The Uber driver blinked its lights.

“There’s our ride!” called out Bryson.

Danica couldn’t see much of anything, with cold white stuff blowing across her face, sticking to her eyelashes. She closed an eye and squinted. “Thank goodness.”

The driver hopped out to help them, and Danica winced as he crammed their gear into the small SUV. The bumper was smashed in, which did nothing to calm her nerves.

She tugged at the back door, and it wouldn’t give. The toothless driver gave it a yank. With a creak and a clunk, the door opened, and Danica ducked into the back seat. The driver wrestled it closed, but he had to slam it a few times so it would stay that way.

Bryson got in on the other side, and the driver took the wheel. “Heading up to the Anchorage Hillside, huh?” He shot a toothless grin at them in the rearview as he pulled out, almost side-swiping a speeding truck.

Danica gulped and flicked her eyes at her boyfriend.

“Yes sir, up to Stuckagain Heights Drive on the upper Hillside,” said Bryson.

A clump of snow blew onto Danica’s window, and she jerked her head back.

Once the driver cleared the airport, he picked up speed as if racing in the Daytona, fishtailing down the snow-laden streets. Danica’s nausea percolated into her gut again, renewed by this joker’s crazy driving through this blinding snowstorm.

“Bry, can you please tell him to slow down?” she whispered, elbowing him. “I don’t want to barf all over his car.”

“Don’t worry, he’ll get us there,” Bryson mumbled as the car swerved sharply to the right.

Danica held her breath, expecting the driver to spin a donut. She breathed relief when he regained control of the car and steered straight ahead.

“So, where are you folks from?” asked the driver, peering at them in his rearview mirror as the car swung the other way.

Danica wanted to yell,“Eyes on the road, buddy!” Instead, she clamped her mouth shut, hoping not everyone up here drove like this piece of work.

The driver punched his brakes and skidded to a stop at a red light, nearly sliding through a busy intersection.

Danica’s heart jumped into her mouth, along with her stomach’s contents. All she had was her large purse, so she fumbled it open and deposited her digested burger and fries into it.

Bryson drew back in disgust. “I can’t believe you just did that.” He scrambled for his handkerchief and handed it to her.

She grimaced. “Couldn’t help it. What else was I supposed to do?”

The stench of vomit filled the car, and Danica turned her face toward the window, where snow morphed into droplets, beetling down the glass.

“Want me to pull over, ma’am?” The driver aimed another toothless grin at the rearview, then prattled on about his buddies getting sick on a wild flight to somewhere she couldn’t pronounce.

Everything was blanketed in white. Miraculously, the Uber made it across town, and the driver started the gradual ascent uphill to the upper Anchorage Hillside, slipping and sliding all the way.

“Probably shouldn’t stop, or we won’t get going again,” joked the driver.

“Then don’t stop.” Danica tried lowering her fogged-up window for some fresh air, but she couldn’t budge it. She wiped the glass with her hand, but the snow stuck to the outside so she couldn’t see anything, anyway.

Soon, they were on a road that headed through the middle of a dense forest. She nudged Bryson. “What kinds of trees are these? Doesn’t the heavy snow break the branches off?”

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