“Gee, I think we’re fresh out of buildings.”
“Did you even check the weather before we left?”
“Could youpleasehold off the lecture long enough to finda safe spot for my grandparents’ prized car?” Her volume escalated with each word.
The pings were coming closer together now, the hail bouncing off the pavement—off the hood of the car. Allie scanned the area for some kind of shelter.Come on, come on.Where was a gas station when you needed one?
But they’d passed the last signs of civilization long ago.
The pinging intensified. Allie groaned, her stomach churning. “They’re going to kill me.”
Luke slowed, turning onto a one-lane road they might or might not have already driven down.
“What are you doing? Our chances are better on the main road.”
“I think I saw a shelter down here.”
“We haven’t passed so much as a mailbox in over an hour. Go back.”
“There was a lean-to or something down here on the left. I’m sure of it.”
“A lean-to. Great. I’m sure that’ll protect this mammoth-sized car from this hailstorm from hell.”
But just ahead she saw it. Sitting back off the road in a grove of trees and scrub was a three-sided shelter, big enough to park a car.
Thank God. Allie breathed a sigh of relief. “Hurry!”
It seemed to take forever to navigate the muddy lane and pull under the shelter. As soon as Luke shut off the engine, Allie jumped out. Holding her breath, she searched the car for damage.
A minute later she exhaled. The car looked fine as far as she could see. She met Luke around the front.
He ran a hand over his face. “No damage on this side.”
“Hard to tell under all this mud.”
She sagged against the wooden studs holding up the shelter, the weight of responsibility easing off her shoulders one brick at a time. If she showed up at her grandparents’ with a dinged-up mess, her parents would never forgive her—or forget.
The air was ripe with tension, the sharp words they’d spoken—and, let’s face it, their unresolved breakup—unforgotten.
“We’ll take it through a car wash when we get closer.”
Allie looked around the lean-to. Hail hammered the tin roof, creating a cacophony in the closed-in space. But the car was safe. That was all that mattered.
She stretched her legs while Luke returned to the car. By the time he unloaded Walter, the hail had changed back to rain.
“I’d better take him for a walk.” Luke disappeared into the woods, Walter lumbering behind on a leash.
Allie took another walk around the car, checking for any dings they might’ve missed, and was relieved not to find any.
Luke returned a while later, joining her on the horizontal board along the back wall. Walter flopped at his feet and began snoring almost immediately. “How long should we wait?”
Thunder cracked and the rain picked up, pounding the roof. “It could start hailing again. We should wait until the storm stops.”
“Without a weather app, we have no idea how long that’ll be.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Well, I’m not risking the car.”
“Okay... Well, we also have no way of reaching your folks to let them know what’s going on.”
