Page 4 of Ashes to Ink

She was sliding into the other lane of traffic, and thoughthere were no cars right now, that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be some soon.Julia didn’t make a sound, Abby wasn’t even sure she knew that something badwas happening.

Inside her head, Abby was screaming, her hands tight on thewheel—so tight, she was afraid she’d lose circulation.

But she couldn’t focus on any of that. She just had toconcentrate on making sure they survived the skid. She had to make sure thatwhatever they hit, they didn’t hit too hard.

The sound of her tires sliding across the ice seemed loud inthe vacuum of her panic.

It shouldn’t have sounded loud. But the rubber did squeal,and Julia let out a sound in response that made Abby want to turn. But shecouldn’t. She had to keep her eyes on the road. The decision to do that, to notlook at her baby girl when her daughter might need her, broke her. But she hadto focus on what was in front of her.

The car hit the snowbank on the other side of the streetwith a dull thud, not even jostling the vehicle as it did, and Abby just satthere for a moment, her heartbeat so loud in her ears she couldn’t hearanything else.

Everything had moved so slowly—and still did, as if she hadn’tjust been in a minor accident.

No other cars were coming, and there was no one else on theroad. She always took this route because there was less traffic and feweridiots out and about.

But it was cold, and there was nobody around to help. Hercar was still running, but she was halfway in a ditch and slammed into asnowbank. Her body didn’t hurt, but her head did. Only because of the headache,not anything else.

But Julia.

Oh my God. Julia.

Abby undid her seatbelt, trying to ignore the fact that shejust might pass out from the stress, and tuning out the cheery Christmas musicfilling her car. This seemed like the worst time for Christmas music, but thenagain, she didn’t know when a good time for it would be anymore.

When she finally got turned around, Julia just smiled andheld out her hands for a hug. Abby practically crawled over the seat back tocheck on her baby girl. They hadn’t hit hard, neither of them getting jarredtoo badly. The car hadn’t even been going fast enough for the airbags to go off.

Abby knew that she needed to figure out how to get out ofthe ditch. Maybe she should call Carter. Or the cops. Then, she remembered thatRoxie’s husband Carter had just been in an accident and wasn’t working at hisshop. He wouldn’t be operating the tow truck.

Right then, all Abby wanted to do was cry because she had noidea what to do.

But because she knew her baby was fine, that both of themwere fine, she got Julia out of her car seat and held her close.

She had to keep reminding herself that they were okay. Shewasn’t even shaking, even though she probably should have been. Shock wouldlikely do that to her later, but right now, she needed to hold her baby girl.

Headlights suddenly filled the car, and Abby closed her eyesand held Julia close, trying to protect her as best she could.

If a car hit them right then, Abby knew that they were donefor.

But as the light continued to fill her car, the oncomingvehicle slowed.

The sound of a door opening and closing filled Abby’s ears,followed by the sounds of a person walking, their shoes crunching on the snow.

Someone tapped on the window and called out her name.

Her name.

They knew her.

But because she and Julia had fogged up the windows, Abbycouldn’t see who it was. She scooted over in the backseat and opened the cardoor.

“Ryan,” she breathed. “Ryan.”

She had never been happier to see his bearded face.

Ryan frowned down at her, looked at Julia in her arms, andlet out a soft curse. “Are you okay, Abby? What the hell happened?”

She just looked at him, and then promptly burst into tears.

Chapter Two