had taken her eyes off the road only for a second, but that was enough. She caught a patch of ice and felt the pickup begin to slide. She turned the wheel into the skid and resisted the urge to brake, knowing that would only make things worse. But she could already see the truck wasn’t going to recover in time to stay on the road.
Nicole gave a cry of alarm as the pickup began to tilt. “Mommy! We’re falling!”
“It’s all right, Nicole. Sit still. Everything will be fine.” Desiree’s heart pounded as the pickup slid sideways off the road into a shallow gully.
The truck thumped to a stop at a sharp angle with the right wheels lodged in snow two feet deeper than the left ones. It took a second for Desiree to realize they really were all right. Nicole whimpered in fright.
Desiree reached over and grabbed Nicole and pulled her daughter into her lap, hugging her tight. “It’s all right, sweetheart. We’re fine. Everything’s fine.”
“We’re going to fall, Mommy.”
“No, we’re not. The truck is stopped now. It’s wedged in the snow. It won’t tip any more.” But she wasn’t going to be able to drive out of this gulley. Which meant that unless she wanted to spend the night in the truck, she was going to have to walk back the two miles or so to the church and call for help.
“You’ll have to wait here for me, Nicole, while I—”
“No, Mommy! Don’t leave me! I’m scared!”
Despite her daughter’s cries, Desiree shifted her onto the seat. “I won’t be gone long.”
“Don’t leave! Please, Mommy.” Nicole clambered back into Desiree’s lap and twined her arms around her mother’s neck.
Desiree hugged her daughter, fighting the tears that stung her nose and welled in her eyes.
She had been on her own for six years. She had gone through her pregnancy alone and had raised Nicole without help from anyone. Forced to cope with whatever life had thrown at her, somehow she had survived. She and Nicole were a family. Sliding off the road wasn’t nearly the disaster that loomed on the horizon. Soon their very lives would be in danger.
So what if she was stuck miles from home in the middle of a snowstorm with her daughter clinging to her neck like a limpet? They, and the truck, had endured without a scratch. There was no reason to cry. But her throat had swollen so thick it hurt to swallow, and she could feel the heat of a tear on her cold cheek.
It wasn’t the accident that was causing her distress, she conceded; it was the knowledge that she had so little control over her life.
Desiree took a deep breath and let it out. She had managed so far to keep things together. She just had to take one step at a time. She retrieved the blanket she kept in the well behind the seat and wrapped Nicole snugly in it.
“Mommy has to call a tow truck to haul us out of here,” she explained to Nicole. “The closest phone is at the church. You need to wait right here for me until I get back. Don’t leave the truck. If you wander off, you could get lost in all this snow. Okay, sweetheart?”
It was a sign of how much more quickly the child of a single parent had to grow up that Nicole sniffed back her tears and nodded reluctant agreement to her mother’s order. There was a risk leaving Nicole alone, but there was even greater risk in taking her out walking in the bitter cold.
“I won’t be gone long,” Desiree promised as she closed the truck door behind her. Desiree wished she had a warmer coat to keep out the bitter wind, but at least she had warm boots. She would be cold when she arrived at the church, but anyone who lived in Wyoming was inured to the harsh weather.
To Desiree’s amazement, she had been walking no more than two minutes, when she saw headlights through the snow. She was afraid she would be lost in the dark at the side of the road, so she stepped out onto the pavement and waved her arms. She knew the moment when the driver spotted her, because the pickup did a little slide to the side as it slowed.
As soon as the truck stopped, she raced to the driver’s window. The door had already opened, and a tall man was stepping out.
“I need help! I—”
“What the hell are you doing out here walking on a night like this? Where’s your car?”
Desiree felt her heart thump when she realized she was staring into the furious eyes of Carter Prescott. “My truck slid into a ditch. I was going back to the church to call for a tow. Can you give me a ride?”
“Get in,” he said curtly.
Desiree raced around to the other side of the pickup before Carter could reach out to touch her.
As he pulled his door closed he said, “It’s doubtful you’ll get a tow truck to come out in this storm. I’ll give you a ride home.”
Desiree debated the wisdom of arguing with him. But she would rather have Nicole safe and warm at home than have to wait with her daughter in the cold until a tow truck arrived. “All right. But I left something in my truck that I need to pick up. It’s only a little way ahead.”
When Carter pulled up behind her truck he said, “Do you need any help?”
“I can handle it.” Desiree was struggling with the door on Nicole’s side of the truck, when it was pulled open from behind her. She whirled in fright—to find Carter standing right behind her.
“I figured you could use some help, after all.”
Desiree took a deep breath. This man wasn’t going to harm her. She had to stop acting so jumpy around him. “Thank you,” she said.
The instant the truck door opened, Nicole came flying out. Desiree barely managed to catch her before she fell. In fact, she would have fallen if Carter hadn’t put his arms around Desiree and supported both her and the child.
“This is the something you needed to pick up?” he asked.
Desiree heard the displeasure underlying his amazement and responded defensively, “This is my daughter, Nicole.”
“You didn’t say anything about a kid earlier this evening.”
“It wasn’t necessary that you know about her until we had reached some agreement.”
“I don’t think—”
Desiree cut him off. “I would rather not discuss this further until we’re alone.” Which was tantamount to a suggestion that they ought to have further discussion on the matter in private, Desiree realized too late.
“All right,” he said.
“You can let go now. I’ve got her.”
He was slow to remove his support, and Desiree was aware suddenly of how secure she had felt with his arms around her. And of being very much alone without them.
She carried Nicole the short distance to his truck. He held the passenger door open, but she found it awkward to step up into the truck with Nicole in her arms.
“Give her to me.” Carter’s tone of voice made it plain he would rather not have handled the child. Before either Desiree or Nicole could protest, he had the girl in his arms.
Desiree had barely settled herself in the truck when Carter dropped Nicole on her lap, shoved her thin wool coat inside and slammed the truck door closed.
“The turnoff for the Rimrock is about five miles ahead on the right,” Desiree instructed.
“I know.”
“How—”
“I drove by there on the way to my grandmother’s. I haven’t forgotten visiting your place when I was ten.”
She watched him rub his thigh and wondered about the bone he had broken so many years ago. “Does it still bother you?”
“Sometimes.”