COLD SEEPED through Jada’s bones. Her dreamless sleep—no dreams she could remember anyway—trapped her between unconsciousness and awareness. She’d commanded herself to wake, but not until noises outside her car grew excited, did she decide to make the leap.

  She sat up and sniffled, glancing around the dark interior at the blanket of thick snow on every window. The wilderness experience didn’t come with toilets. Last night she’d discovered the lengths she’d go to for certain needs. She’d sipped water to keep hydrated all evening, then had to created a used-candle trail from her bumper to a particularly high snow drift against a tree to take care of business. Cold underwear and frozen jeans were the worst. She prayed they wouldn’t spend another night out here.

  Stretching and getting used to the beginning of the day, ushering through the defrosting driver-side windows, she crawled to the front seat and fired up the engine to jumpstart heat circulation. Reaching back, she rescued her toiletry kit, and out of habit, checked around to make sure she had privacy. Snow-covered windows, right. The snow had insulated her car against last night’s winds, but it may be worth the transparency to scrape it away to get some solar heating.

  On the front passenger seat, she sat cross-legged and glanced again at the melting effects on the driver window. She lowered it a few inches to peer outside before it got stuck. She was supposed to be headed north-east. The position of the rising sun suggested otherwise.

  Not something to worry about now. She lit the next set of candles lined up in the foot-well, sloppily brushed her teeth using her dwindling water supply, and used her makeup remover to clean her face.

  Remembering she had an extra pack of hand wipes, perhaps she should check on Mohammed and his family if they hadn’t packed similar provisions.

  Raised voices drifted in from the distance. One in particular, a mix of calm and authority, caused her neck to strain as she tried to see beyond Mohammed’s car. “You’re all right? Ma’am? You, sir? … Pregnant?” Indecipherable conversation followed.

  Minutes later, shadows and crunching snow came closer. Jada expected a policeman to round Mohammed’s vehicle, not a vision wrapped in a hefty hooded winter coat, and eyes as pale gray as the night was cold.

  “I’m Jada.” Hello. What happened to ‘hello’?

  No surprise his last step faltered.

  What she wouldn’t give to relive the last ten seconds of her life. Okay, maybe a lot more other times than the last ten seconds, but that was beside the point.

  She attempted to lower the window further, but the glass refused to cooperate. Handsome must have been six feet, but the slope of snow angling her car into the ditch made him a giant before he leaned down to peer inside.

  “Uh.” Handsome’s gaze stayed on her for a long while before it wandered down the line of mangled vehicles. “Are you hurt? Injured?” His eyes came back, focused and serious. “Feel discomfort?”

  “No. I’m okay.”

  Gloved fingers poked through the window and dropped a couple of shiny packets. She looked down at her lap. Energy bars.

  “Thank—” She looked up but he was gone. Butterflies collided in her stomach. Those eyes… She wanted to look into those eyes again.

  A younger version took his place. This one smiled and shoved a foil juice packet through the slot. “Sorry, it’s all we have left.”

  Left from what? When he moved on, she tracked their progress by the volume of their voices down the wreckage.

  That was the strangest meeting ever. Checking her lap again, Jada ripped open the breakfast like a wild animal in a cage. It was a rescue after all.