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“I’m so embarrassed,” she said, pushing the door against the snow.
“Let me get a shovel,” he said. “Wait right there.”
He ran back to get a short-handled shovel and cleared the snow away from the door. When he opened it for her, he confirmed who she was. They had gone to high school together, and although they weren’t friends, her beauty had caught his eye at the time. She hadn’t changed.
“Why don’t you hop in the truck?” he said, nodding toward the tow truck. “It’ll be easier to dig you out than to maneuver the truck around here with that tree in the way. Leave your keys for me.”
“Okay, thank you. It’s freezing!”
He watched her get into the passenger side of the idling truck. It didn’t take long to dig out a few feet in front of her car. He got in, or tried to get in, his long legs bent with his knees touching the steering wheel, but he didn’t want to mess around with her seat.
A little rocking back and forth, forward and reverse, and he got the car out of the snowdrift in a minute. At the truck, he placed the shovel in the bed of the truck and went back to the driver’s side.
As soon as he opened the door, she looked at him and said, “Jason Karas.”
“And you’re Lily Fairchild. I recognized you right away.”
“It hasn’t been that long, has it?” she asked.
“Seven years,” he said. “Longer. Seven and a half. What are you doing these days?”
“I’m still in school,” she said, watching him.
“Oh? Where?”
“Wayne Law,” she said, and she couldn’t help a smile as wide as her face about the one thing she felt pride in.
“No way!”
“Yep, my last year. You must be working at the station?”
“Just for break. I’m at the School of Medicine.”
“Wayne?” she asked, surprised.
“Yep. Last year.”
“Wow! I wonder why I didn’t know that in this town,” she replied, frowning. “That’s quite an accomplishment. What are you going to do?”
“Emergency medicine,” he said. “With a specialty in pediatrics if I can get a fellowship.”
Squinting her eyes at him, she remembered details about him. “You always liked kids. You were going to teach!”
“I was. But I switched to premed. I wanted the kids, but I wanted more.”
“That’s a lot more,” she said. “So! Are you married?” She asked this grinning.
“No. What about you?”
“I’m not even dating anyone,” she said, laughing.
They sat together, not talking for a moment. “Do you want to get coffee?” he asked, looking at her again.
Lily Fairchild really hadn’t changed. Her name matched her perfectly—golden hair peeking out from under a red knitted cap, huge gray eyes, ivory complexion. A year behind him in school, she wasn’t with the popular crowd, a term he loathed because he was part of it, hating the label, doing everything he could to distance himself from it. He volunteered, joined as many of the nerdy activities as he had time for, and all it did was drive his popularity.
You’re such a humble guy was a refrain he heard constantly, and he hated that, too. It was pretty difficult to be anything but humble when you and your folks were immigrants in an all-white, conservative community, and your father owned a gas station. John and Poppy’s educational status didn’t help in that town, which was money-driven and snobbish. There was definitely the right and wrong side of the tracks.
“I’d love to have coffee with you, but I have a class. I’m actually late for it. Can you meet me after? I’ll be done by eleven.”
