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James drags his hand down his face with a groan. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Apparently Drew’s sister is beautiful and smart.” Conner says, then has the audacity to wink at me when I turn to look at him.

“Shut up, Conner,” James and I grumble in unison.

Conner throws his hands up in defense. “Okay, okay. Just trying to provide some comic relief while we’re on the cusp of death.”

James scoffs. “Between the three of us, we have a surgeon, an anesthesiologist, and a medical doctor.” He gives Conner a sidelong glance. “Although sometimes I question how on earth you got a doctorate.”

We give Conner a hard time, but he’s actually an impeccable doctor. And his patients seem to appreciate his zany sense of humor.

“True. We can handle anything the storm throws at us.” I agree with James.

“Unless it’s a tornado,” Conner mutters under his breath.

After a quick discussion, we all agree it’s best to pack up the campsite as quickly as possible then head back to James’s house for safety.

As soon as we step foot outside of the pickup, the rain pours down on us. I grab everything out of the tent and throw it in the back of the truck so James can remove the tent pegs. Conner walks over to load up all the food and our cooler. The rain puts the fire out for us, so I guess that’s one less thing we have to worry about.

We take a good thirty minutes to take down our campsite and load everything back up. We’re all soaking wet by the time we get back inside the warm cabin of the pickup. The rain is pouring down now. We can barely even see the pond that’s probably about twenty yards away from us.

James grimly looks out at the rain. “Ugh. The dirt road I have to take to get back to the house floods like crazy in storms like this. It’s the downside to living out here.” He shifts the pickup into drive and we begin our descent.

The rain is a torrential downpour now and the windshield wipers can barely keep up. The wind is blowing hard. I can feel it shaking the pickup as James slowly creeps forward through the field.

Between the wind and the rain, the cabin of the truck seems loud. James turns the radio up even louder as we continue to listen for weather updates.

“Next time, I’m listening to Emily!” Conner yells from the back seat.

I ignore him.

James continues driving agonizingly slow through the large field, trying to make it to the country road before it gets too muddy out here. It takes us ten minutes just to make it back to the road. We still can’t see anything more than five yards ahead of us, but at least we’re back on the dirt road. Which is already flooding with water.

We’re probably twenty minutes away from his house on a normal day, but who knows how long it’ll take us to get back at this rate.

James drives carefully through the large puddles filling up the road and we all listen intently to the weather on the radio. We really should have listened to Emily. But this morning there was only a twenty percent chance of rain. It didn’t seem like a big deal.

I wonder how Emily and Penny are doing. Penny isn’t a huge fan of storms. I hope Sophie and Sam are okay too. I wish I was there with all the girls, taking care of them. Not that Sophie would even let me at this point.

“What’s that?” Conner asks, squinting as he looks through the front windshield.

James brings the pickup to a stop and we all squint to see what’s going on. There’s a Subaru Outback stopped in the middle of a flooded spot in the road. The water is only about six inches deep. I’m unsure if the vehicle is stuck in the muddy water, or if the driver just got scared. As I’m squinting through the windshield, deciphering the situation, realization hits me.

“That looks just like Sophie’s car,” I stammer, opening the door and hurling myself out of the truck without another thought.

A blonde woman who looks like Sophie opens the driver’s side door of the Outback and stands on the front seat and waves her hands in the air.

“My car is stuck!” She yells.

It is Sophie. My heart races. I know she’s fine, and it’s just a minor flood. But my body goes into beast mode as I splash through the water. My tennis shoes and jeans are covered in the murky water that comes up to my shins.

I wade over to the driver’s side door and have to yell over the wind and rain so she can hear me. “What the hell are you doing out here?!”

Once I reach her, she ducks back into her vehicle, sitting in the driver’s seat.

“I had to see you!” She says breathily.

Her hair is soaked and plastered to her face and shoulders. She’s wearing her yellow sundress—which looks even brighter amidst the dark and stormy sky. Her dress is sopping wet and clinging to her body. I stare at her, waiting for her to continue.