Josiah hit the gas too hard, and the wheels lost traction and started spinning.
“Stop. Just stop. You’ll dig a hole. Go back a little and let’s try to get to a place where we can get more traction on the tires.”
“There’s no traction, dude. It’s all snow and ice and mud at this point.”
Josiah was starting to panic, so I put my hand on top of his on the steering wheel and leveled my voice to a calming tone.
“It’ll be fine. Don’t worry. Just reverse it a little, and we’ll try again.” I put my hand back in my lap, and then Josiah took a calming breath and reversed the SUV. We slid a little, but it was toward the side of the mountain and not toward the edge, which could have been deadly.
“Okay, let’s tryit again, go steady, but don’t slow down, just keep going, okay?”
Josiah nodded. “Okay, let’s do this.”
He put the SUV into drive, and we started up again. Josiah was calm under pressure and stayed focused the whole way up. We kept a steady speed, and even though we slid a few times, we finally crested the hill and made it to the level road beyond.
“Thank God that’s over, now what?”
“According to Bruce’s instructions, we have a short way on this road and then the last turnoff up to the cabin.”
“We have to drive up another section? Damn.” We had stopped for a second to let Josiah shake out his arms that had to be tight with all the stress. He took another deep breath, then put both hands back on the wheel. “Okay, fine, just tell me when we get to the turnoff.”
Even though it had hurt my pride at first, I would forever be glad I hadn’t driven up here by myself. Josiah was doing great under all this pressure, and I was so impressed with the way he was handling this situation.
We drove for a few minutes on the level road following the twists and turns of the mountain. At one point, we passed by a stream flowing down the side of the mountain. There were icicles formed all along the edges, telling me the temperature was dropping even lower the further up we climbed.
“There’s the drive. If we do it just like we did last time, we should be able to make it.”
Josiah nodded but stayed quiet, concentrating on the road. The first seconds on the drive were fine until one of the rear tires slid too far to the edge of the gravel drive, and the whole vehicle went sideways. We both yelled and held on in case we went all the way over, but the other tires stayed on the ground. And as much as Josiah tried to rev the engine and get the tire to find some traction out of the hole, it just wasn’t going to happen with all the snow and ice. We were stuck.
“It won’t go any further, Josiah. We’ll have to walk. I can see the cabin up there, let’s get the bags and get out of this fucking snow.”
“Sebastian, I can’t leave my car here. How am I gonna get to my conference?”
“Josiah, I don’t think you’re going anywhere until we can get someone up here to tow you out of this ditch. And with the way the snow is coming down, I don’t think that’s gonna be anytime soon. Just come on and let’s get to the cabin. I’m exhausted, and I know you must be, too. Come on.”
Josiah started to get out of his door, but he stopped and looked over his shoulder at my inquiring glance.
“I’m wearing slippers. I can’t walk in all that snow and mud in slippers.”
“Technically, you can.”
“Technically, yeah, but I don’t want to ruin them. Presley just gave them to me, and I love them. You love them, too, remember?”
I did remember. And it was sort of cute that he was prissy about his pink sparkly slippers. Plus, this would give me a chance to touch him again voluntarily. That was a win for me.
“Okay. I’m going to get out and take the bags up to the cabin. In the meantime, crawl over to this side and wait for me.”
I got out and watched my boots sink into the snow on the ground. I took a second to get my footing, then went to the back carefully to get the bags. With one set of luggage in each hand, I was at a definite disadvantage going uphill, but after several slips, slides, and near falls, I made it. I took the time to open the door, check the heat, and set the luggage inside before going back to get Josiah. I nearly busted my ass a time or two going down this time, but I made it although I slid the last few feet to the car door.
Josiah opened the door for me, and I turned around, so my back was to him. “Hop on.”
I was pretty sure I heard him squeak, “What?”
“Hop on and let’s go.”
I could feel him fidgeting behind me. “It’s all right. I’ll just take them off and walk in my bare feet. It doesn’t look that far.”
I turned around with my hands on my hips, barely fitting into the opening of the car door. “Josiah, it’s fucking snowing and below zero out here. Plus, there’s nothing but rocks on the ground between here and the porch. You’ll rip your feet up if they don’t fall off.”
