Page 37 of The Law of Attraction
“Not many people would do that.”
“Sure they would.”
“No. I can’t think of many who would.” Something squeezed around her heart, like a big warm hand had reached into her chest. “You are nice.”
He didn’t look at her, but she could see his mouth turn up at the corner. “Shut up.”
“Okay, maybe not that nice.”
The rain went from moderate to torrential in the space of a few seconds. It was like they’d driven headfirst into Niagara Falls.
Olivia had been living in LA for so long, she’d almost forgotten what real storms were like.
“This is insane,” Adam said as he leaned forward, struggling to see through the downpour. The windshield wipers couldn’t keep up, and the visibility was only a few feet in front of the car. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Storms out here aren’t like in LA. When it rains, things can get apocalyptic fast.”
“No shit. Jesus.”
Olivia squirmed in her seat as a ball of anxiety settled in the pit of her stomach. Her feet pressed against the floorboards. “Be careful. The roads can get slick when water starts to collect on them.”
“I understand how physics works.”
“You should decrease your speed to reduce the risk of hydroplaning. And leave extra space between us and the car ahead.”
“I don’t need you to womansplain driving to me right now.”
Her fist clenched around the handle on the door. “Womansplaining would imply you have more knowledge of driving in rainy conditions than me, but since I grew up here and you’ve already admitted you’ve never driven in anything like this before, I am simply explaining it to you.”
“Whatever you’re doing, it’s making me nervous.”
“Sorry.”
Adam’s hands tightened on the wheel and he decreased his speed. “I should have let you drive. I didn’t realize we’d be heading into a typhoon.”
Olivia bit down on the impulse to point out that a typhoons occurred in a specific region of the Pacific Ocean and were therefore unrelated to the tropical depression currently dumping rain on them in central Texas. Now wasn’t the time to give in to her knee-jerk impulse to push his buttons.
“You’re doing great,” she told him instead. “I’m only side-seat driving because I’m nervous too. To be honest, I hate driving in the rain.”
“Really?”
“You get caught in a few blinding rainstorms on the highway, and you start to develop a complex.”
“I’ll bet.” He almost had to shout to be heard over the sound of the rain battering the car. It was impossible to see the lines on the road. The only way to know they were in their lane was to follow the taillights of the car in front of them.
Adam’s arms and neck were bowstring taut. His fists gripped the steering wheel at ten and two like a driving school student. But he was doing everything right. Going slow, but not so slow they were likely to get plowed into from behind. Keeping plenty of distance between them and the car ahead, but not so much they lost sight of where their lane was. Every once in a while he’d veer a little too close to the shoulder and the friction paint on the road would hum, but he always course corrected smoothly, without jerking on the wheel.
After fifteen minutes that felt more like an hour, the rain started to let up a little. They could see the lines on the road again, and the windshield wipers were able to keep up with the raindrops pelting the front window.
Just as Olivia started to relax, there was a sound like a small explosion, and the car lurched sideways. She recognized the flat squeal of rubber dragging across asphalt as her insides rearranged themselves.
They’d blown a tire.
All the breath left her lungs as Adam wrenched on the wheel to keep them from careening across the highway, and she felt the remaining tires start to hydroplane on the wet road.
They were going to spin out. She was going to die sitting next to Adam today after all—not on the plane, but in a shitty rental car in the middle of nowhere.
Only they didn’t die this time either.
