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13
Tessa
“Crap.” Tessa let out a low breath as she stepped onto the parking lot. A group of people were walking toward them from across the street. Some of the faces she remembered from the trailer park a few miles back and one of them was pointing at the truck.
She broke into a full sprint, sliding across the broken glass and unlocked Old Blue to pop the hood. Her eyes never left the group as she tightened the loose screw on the positive battery terminal.
“Hey, wait a minute,” a woman from the group called out.
Robin slid into the cab of the truck. The color was drained from her face as she slammed the passenger door closed. “I think we should get out of here now.”
“Working on it.” The engine roared to life and the tires kicked up bits of debris as she accelerated onto the road.
“My apartment is down in Escondido.” Robin was shaking and she put her hands under her legs as she turned to stare out the back window.
Tessa almost hit the brakes. “Escondido? You walked here from there?”
“I hike a lot.” Robin shrugged. Warning bells rang in Tessa’s head as she turned onto the main street. Escondido was the complete opposite direction from home and a heck of a lot more populated. She’d been there once to take Emily to the Build A Bear workshop in the massive mall.
Tessa glanced at Robin from the corner of her eye. Sure, she’d given her word, but she might have bit off more than she could chew. “Are you positive you want to go home?”
Robin leaned back against the seat and blew out a heavy breath that moved the hair off her sunglasses. “Where else is there to go?”
Tension knotted the muscles of her shoulders and neck as Tessa clung to the steering wheel. The red dial showed a quarter tank left. There was just enough to get Robin to her apartment and get back home. The gas can was still in the garage. Landon had filled it before he left. The ache of missing him hit her hard.
Thick pine trees lined old highway 395 until the boulders and rocks gave way to clear parcels of open land. The industrial buildings loomed in the distance, flat topped and abandoned. A few days ago, she’d driven this stretch of road, but it already felt like a lifetime since.
She was forced to pull out onto I-15. There was no one going south and the median blocked her view of the northbound lane. She’d have no choice but to drive that stretch of freeway back home. Hopefully the cars were cleared out of the path by now. One more hilltop and then a sprawling metropolis would great them. Her hands were slick on the wheel.
“So, what is it that you do?” Robin asked. They’d both been silent on the drive. Tessa hated that question. All the things she could have been, the degree she never finished, her father’s rants about what she’d given up. It all echoed like a broken record telling her she wasn’t good enough.
“I have kids,” she said, expecting the typical “oh” response from a woman who wore white high heels to send her significant other off.
“How many?” Robin asked. Her voice was a little slurred. Tessa wondered if she was in shock.
“Two. A boy and a girl.”
“That’s fun. One of each.” Robin nodded as she turned to look outside. The light from the window reflected on her blond hair, forming a halo around her head. “Joe really wants a family. We stopped trying to prevent pregnancy a few months before they left, but nothing happened.”
“It will…” The words of reassurance died on Tessa’s lips. There was no guarantee it would happen. There was no guarantee either of their men were coming home. “I like to make things,” she blurted out awkwardly. “You know like DIY type stuff.”
Robin laughed softly and the sound of Tessa’s outburst hung in the stifling air of the truck. She cringed and focused on the road ahead. This was without a doubt the most uncomfortable she’d been in as long as she could remember. Just drop her off and be done with this nonsense.
Tessa slammed on the brakes at the top of the hill. The smoke was thicker at this vantage point, choking the blood red sun and blanketing the city below with falling ash. But it wasn’t the fire that suffocated her now. Thousands of people were on the freeway miles ahead of Escondido heading north on foot and spreading out for the vehicles that forced their way through the evacuating horde. They looked like ants in a colony from this distance, all fleeing from the glowing flames on the horizon over the next hill.
“It’s not just the mountains,” Tessa whispered.
Robin leaned forward and lifted her sunglasses. “What’s happening out there?”
“I thought it was the mountains but it looks like San Diego is on fire.” Tessa glanced over her shoulder, making sure she could easily turn around. “Why don’t you come stay at my place? I don’t think it’s safe for you here now.”
“I’ll be fine,” Robin said as she reached for the door handle. “You can drop me off here.”
Let her go. You’re running out of time. “Stop. I said I’d take you home.”
Robin dropped her hand onto her lap and lowered her face. “Thank you.”
Tessa avoided the potholes of the exit ramp that led underneath the freeway and glanced at the concrete structure above them. In a few days, thousands of feet would be pounding across this point. Do they even have a place to go?
