Page 22 of Line of Resistance

Becky frowned. “You should be gone in an hour. It’s supposed to start snowing.”

“It always snows here.” Eloise glanced out the window. “It’s Alaska. That’s what it does. It snows.”

“I don’t understand why you decided to come back to all this.” Becky shook her head, glowering out at the thin layer of snow already covering the ground. “I know I won’t.”

Becky moved to Alaska around the same time Eloise came back, only Becky didn’t choose to come here on her own. She was forced to follow her husband when he got a job in some sort of energy development. She was not a fan and missed no opportunity to tell him, and anyone else who would listen, how ready she was to leave.

Eloise managed a more genuine smile. “Well, hopefully you won’t have to get used to it since you’re moving south as soon as John retires.”

Becky groaned, her head tipping back. “It can’t happen soon enough. This snow makes me a nervous wreck.” She pointed to where Eloise’s coat hung on the rack. “So you should go home. I don’t want to worry about you all night.”

Becky was one of the many unexpected reasons she loved her job. She’d landed the position not realizing it included a surrogate mother who would fuss over her and offer a little taste of what she never had.

And she ate it up.

“Fine.” Eloise faked a dramatic groan and snagged her coat, pulling it on as she kicked off her heeled Mary Janes. “If it will make you happy.”

“What would make me happy would be living in Florida, staring out at the ocean instead of all that flipping white shit.” Becky gave Eloise a warm smile. “But knowing you’ll get home safely will be the second-best option.”

They continued to chat while they pulled on the winter boots that made the parking lot significantly less treacherous. Once she was dressed, Eloise collected her computer, stuffed her inside shoes into her bag, zipped up her coat, and headed out with Becky. The parking lot was surprisingly empty. “Where is everyone?”

Becky lifted her brows. “I told you. There’s a storm coming. They all wanted to get home before it hit.”

It took everything Eloise had not to roll her eyes. Storms happened all winter long in Alaska. It was just a fact of life. One they all learned to deal with. “I think everyone just wanted to use it as an excuse to get the heck out of here.” Not that she could blame them if they’d had a week half as crap-tastic as hers.

“I knowI’musing it to get the heck home and bundled up before all the snow starts to hit.” Becky shooed Eloise toward her SUV. “Call me when you get home, so I know you made it safe.”

Eloise dropped her head to one side. “I live five minutes away. I think I’ll be just fine.”

She recognized Becky was being dramatic, but part of her loved having someone worry over her. That hadn’t happened in almost three years. Not since she lost the person who meant more to her than anything. The same person who would agree with her that everyone was being worried over nothing.

Becky shot her a glare over the top of her car.

Eloise rolled her eyes but couldn’t keep from smiling. “Fine. I’ll call you when I’m home.”

She said another goodbye and climbed into her SUV, sinking down into the heated seat as she pulled out of the lot and headed home.

But it wasn’t long before she was rethinking her direction. Bryson’s absence from school still bothered her. She should have made sure someone was home when she dropped him off the day before. She should have checked that he wasn’t alone.

Guilt and worry had her turning in the opposite direction, moving her away from town and along the isolated roads leading to Bryson’s home at the edge of the district. It wasn’t a quick trip, but surely it wouldn’t take too long. She had plenty of time to make sure the little boy was safe before getting back to her apartment, changing into some comfy clothes, and finishing the closet reorganization she started over the weekend.

Of course, Becky probably wouldn’t consider the detour as vital as she did, so Eloise waited a couple of minutes before calling her well-meaning coworker and telling a tiny fib. One she didn’t feel too bad telling. Especially since she was making sure a student was okay.

It was her job, right?

With Becky notified, Eloise dropped her cell into the cup-holder of the console and cranked the heat, turning up the music as she made her way out of town and toward the unlined road leading to Bryson’s home.

Unfortunately, Becky might have known what she was talking about, and soon snow started to fall. But it wasn’t falling in a scattered, white Christmas sort of way. It was literally dumping from the sky. Large, wet, heavy flakes nearly covered her windshield between each swipe of the wipers, slowing her pace to a crawl.

She watched the outside temperature gauge steadily drop as the sun started to set. The shortened days during the winter months were definitely not easy to adjust to. Luckily, the reflective properties of snow kept things from feeling oppressively dark. Today was no exception. If anything, the world outside her windows felt ridiculously bright because all she could see was the falling snow.

Right up until there was no missing the giant moose standing in the middle of the road.

Even though she was going slow, driving carefully in the treacherous weather, there was no controlling her SUV as she swerved to miss the huge animal. The fresh layer of snow was sloppy and cold enough that her tires struggled to find traction and she scooted right off the edge of the roadway and onto the sloping shoulder, tipping sideways into a slant no amount of all-wheel drive could traverse.

“Mother flipping son of a biscuit eater.” Eloise huffed out a breath, letting her head drop back against the rest.

Becky was going to kill her. Possibly with her own bare hands.

---