Tara covered her mouth and laughed out loud, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, my God.”
Her amusement was infectious and Jeff found himself laughing along with her, his chest liftingas if tugged by a helium balloon.
“I want to meet this kid,” she said, still grinning. “He sounds adorable.”
“He is.” Jeff wanted his son back more than anything, and introducing him to this remarkable woman who kept surprising him was a close second. Which didn’t fit his plans at all. “He’s great.”
Tara stroked a hand down Jeff’s arm, and he somehow managed not to drive off the road. “You’llfind him.”
He almost believed her.
“Shit.” Jeff’s low curse woke Tara as the RV slowed.
Her neck hurt like a bitch from sleeping at an odd angle and her mouth was a desert. According to her phone it was nearly one p.m. No wonder she was hungry. Not that losing her breakfast had helped.
Everything came rushing back to her as Jeff brought the camper to a complete stop behind an endlesssea of cars that disappeared around the curve about a quarter-mile ahead. “Uh-oh.”
Tara opened the map app on her phone and waited for it to pull up their location as it labored with one bar of cell service. She tapped the red line on their route and read the description entered by other users. “It’s not good. A multi-car crash involving a semi is blocking all three lanes. Looks like there areserious injuries. Just happened about twenty minutes ago.”
The universe always seemed to have a way of reminding her that things in her own life could be worse.
“So, we’re going to be here a while.” Jeff tapped out his impatience on the steering wheel. He had to be eager to get to North Carolina and Evan.
“Yeah, but at least we weren’t involved. We’ll drive away from this.”
Jeff scoffedand shook his head. “Can you just follow me around and do that all day?”
Her brows scrunched together. “Do what?”
He shut off the engine and looked at her, his eyes the rich, golden brown of maple syrup. “Find the bright side in every situation.”
His intense gaze made her stomach roll. Pushing a strand of hair out of her face, she gave him a saucy smile, opting to treat his words as thejest he’d clearly intended. “I’m sure you couldn’t afford my fee.”
“Probably not.” He cleared his throat and scanned the area outside the windows.
A mix of tall trees divided them from northbound traffic on the left, and a tree-topped hill hid the view to the right. In the summer, it was a gorgeous wall of green, but right now the only color came from the winter grass and small groupings ofold pines.
They were a couple of miles from the nearest exit, well and truly stuck until the road was cleared or police created an alternate route.
“Want a sandwich?” she asked. “I make a mean PBJ.”
“Sure, thanks.”
Tara stood and took a step toward the kitchen. With a loud crash, the RV lurched. She stumbled forward, then backward onto her ass with a painfulthump. “What the hell?”
“You okay?” Jeff called, rising from his seat.
“Fine.” She pushed to her feet, rubbing her rear. “You?”
He nodded and yanked open the side door. “A car slammed into us. I’ll go check their status.”
Tara grabbed the first-aid kit and ran after him, snagging her coat from the front seat on her way.
Outside was chaos. A black Volvo SUV had rammed into the RV’s bumper, crumpling both vehicles.In the front seat, someone with a brown cloud of tight curls slumped over the steering wheel. A little girl sat in a booster seat in the back, her cries audible from inside, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.
“Jeff.” Tara tossed him the first aid kit over the bent hood of the Volvo.
He caught it effortlessly and nodded.
