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It was getting dark out, even though theoretically it was still an hour from sunset. The clouds overhead just made it so dark.
And then we came up to the second crossing. At first, I thought it was fine. But once the headlights of the truck flashed over the road in full, I saw that what I’d at first mistaken for the dark of the asphalt on the bridge was actually a mirage—because there was at least three inches of dark brown water flowing right over top of it.
“Dammit!” Jeremiah slammed the brakes and then smacked the wheel with the palm of his hand.
I was tempted to say we should try and drive over it anyway, but I’d lived here long enough to know better. It only took a couple inches to make you hydroplane and I’d seen cars washed over bridges in less water than this.
“If we turn back, we could still get over the other bridge and find another way around,” I said, looking over my shoulder.
“Turn around, how exactly?” Jeremiah turned to me, clearly pissed. “There’s no shoulder and we’ve got a trailer.”
“I don’t know!” I threw my hands up. “A three-point turn? Or a thirty-point turn, whatever it takes.”
He shook his head. “There’s no point. By the time we get back to the other crossing, it’ll be flooded too.”
I made an exasperated noise. “We have to try. We can’t just stay here.”
He gave me a side-long look. “Oh yes, we can.”
My mouth dropped open. “And if the water keeps rising?”
“I’ll back up some. It’s higher ground here, and unless the river rises another ten, fifteen feet, we’ll be fine.”
Was he joking?
Apparently not, because he put the truck in reverse, and actually managed to back up in a straight line even with the trailer attached. It might’ve impressed me if he wasn’t suggesting we just—what? Stay here until when? Until the water went back down again? That could be—
I made another exasperated noise. “We can’t just stay here! We don’t have any food or water.”
Jeremiah just reached across my lap to the dash. I withdrew in distaste from his close proximity as he rustled around and pulled out two half-crushed granola bars. He tossed one in my lap. Then he reached behind his seat and pulled out two empty water bottles. I jumped as he shoved his door open, the driving rain assaulting my ears after the relative quiet inside the cab.
I watched through the back window as he set the two bottles in the back of the truck bed, wide-lipped tops off. He propped the bottles upright between some tools he pulled out of his truck box. I could see rainwater splashing inside the clear plastic bottles, filling a fourth of an inch at the bottom of them already.
God, he was annoying when he went all MacGyver like that. I ripped the bar on my lap open and shoved a huge bite in my mouth.
It was a little stale but still, food was food, and I really hadn’t eaten anything beside the fries Jeremiah had spared me during lunch. Was I wishing I’d taken the time to order a fat, juicy burger like he had? Yes, yes, I was.
I was also wishing I hadn’t gotten out back at Raul’s because now I was stuck in these wet clothes for God knew how long. I shifted and my butt squelched on the truck seat. I grimaced. Dear God, was I really stuck here? Cold, wet, hungry, and with—?
“There,” Jeremiah announced, freshly doused with rainwater as he got back up into the cab, all but shaking his hair like a dog does when it’s wet.
I held up a hand. “God, please. Some of us are trying to get dry.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Princess. Was me trying to get you some water to drink so you don’t get dehydrated making you uncomfortable? I guess her majesty will have to get out and get her own water from now on.”
“Don’t be a jackass. You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Do I?”
I rolled my eyes. He was determined to be impossible. I shoved another bite of the granola bar into my mouth, not taking the bait.
But the silence in the cab with only the rain continuing to pelt the front windshield quickly grew unnerving.
“So what now?” I asked as soon as I’d swallowed.
“Now we wait.” He turned off the truck and stretched his legs out—well, as much as he could considering he couldn’t exactly lean his seat back very far before bumping into the back of the truck. And his legs were too dang long to stretch out straight. He grabbed his cowboy hat off the seat between us and settled it low over his head so it covered his eyes.
“You’re going to take a nap? Seriously?”
