Chapter Four
Hayes
The roads are a goddamn mess. It’s hard to comprehend how the conditions deteriorated so quickly, but I’m used to driving in the snow and ice.
You don’t turn down Sunday dinner at Nana’s, even if you have to drive in a blizzard to get there. Morris’s grandmother cooks from scratch, and it’s something we don’t miss.
“Mother Nature is pissed,” Hael says from the front passenger seat. My twin chuckles, turning the radio down, like that might help me see better in the whiteout conditions. “Maybe we should have slept at Nana’s.”
“Seriously?” Morris asks from the back seat. “Yeah, I can see all three of us cuddled up on that full-size bed in the closet she calls a guest room.”
My gaze flicks to the rearview mirror, but his massive self takes up the entire thing. He scratches his thick blond beard, and I refocus on the road before I tell him to take out his ridiculous man bun because it’s blocking my view. That would be a dick move, since I’m unable to see out the ice-covered back window anyway.
“I would have taken the couch,” Hael says with a snort.
“That helps.” I scoff, barely cutting my eyes at him before refocusing on the road. “Morris and I would totally fit without you.”
“What the fuck is that?” Morris growls, and a half second later, his meaty hand ends up by the dash as he points at something in the distance.
It’s a set of car lights, but they’re slightly obscured. However, that’s down past our turnoff to head home.
“It’s probably someone pulled over, hoping it’ll clear up,” Hael says.
“If they pulled off the road in this, they won’t be getting back on,” Morris says grimly. “Drive by. We need to check if they’re okay.”
I frown as my hand levitates next to the blinker that I was about to flip on.
He’s right, though.
As much as I want to get home, climb into bed, and have a good night’s sleep before the work week starts tomorrow, that’s not how things go up here. These temperatures can kill a person within hours—less than that under certain circumstances.
“Check out that car,” Hael says, like I can’t see the same shit he can. “Shit, it’s all wedged in the snowbank.”
“Dammit,” Morris growls, tossing his door open and jumping out before the truck is even fully stopped.
“He never moves that fast. That’s a bad sign, isn’t it?” Hael unclips his seat belt and follows Morris’s lead.
I have no idea if the shoulder will be safe.
By the looks of that car, it’s not.
I leave the truck running and turn on the hazard lights. Pushing my door open, I’m hit with an ungodly rush of cold air. I make sure I’m not about to lock us out of the vehicle and head for the car.
Hael and Morris have already made it to the car, and they dig the snow from around the door, making space so it can be opened. Damn, the driver ended updeepin one of the huge snowbanks. The only bright side is they didn’t hit a tree, pole, or something else equally unforgiving.
Morris shoves himself off the ground, ripping the door open. Hael barely has time to scramble out of the way or be smacked with the metal of the car door.
“Arbor, what the hell?” Morris growls, bending and sticking his head inside the vehicle.
My eyes widen. He hasn’t shut up about her and her death-trap car. He even talked Hael into helping him work on it for free. Not only that, I haven’t been able to get her scent out of my mind since she came into the gym.
“Mr. Morris?” Her voice is small, and my chest gets tight.
“It’s just Morris, sweetheart. Jesus Christ, are you and the baby okay?” he asks, squatting to get closer to her eye level.
“I think so,” she says, running a hand over her extremely swollen stomach. “The airbag didn’t deploy, which is probably a good thing. It was a very gentle crash. More of a sliding on the ice, then a pretty soft landing, thanks to the snow.”
Hael’s eyes are as big as mine as he studies her stomach. He swipes his long brown curls back from his face and stares like he’s never seen a pregnant woman. “We need to call 911.”