Abby O’Rourke kicked what was left of the passenger window out with her one foot that still wore a shoe. She didn’t know if the other shoe had come off in the crash. She didn’t see it in the cab of the truck, not on the floor among the broken glass, not on the seat. Maybe it had flown out the broken windshield, but she’d never be able to find it in the snow.
Well, she might be able to, but did she want to take the time to find it? 
She looked over her shoulder at Andrew, whose head lolled to the side, blood trickling down the side of his face, his hands limp at his sides. If she was a good person, she would reach over to feel if he was still alive, but she needed to get away. If he was dead, well, she was sorry for it, but he had brought this on himself. The things he’d said to her since he’d dragged her into this truck when she’d been trying to get into her car after leaving the gym would ring in her ears the rest of her life.
Hopefully the rest of her life would last a good long time, not the short amount of time he seemed to have planned.
He’d told her she wouldn’t belong to anyone else. He’d warned her. She would belong to him, or no one. He’d make sure of that.
She wasn’t sure what his intention was, exactly, but she’d known if he’d gotten her to his cabin on Round Lake, she wouldn’t have escaped.
She climbed out of the window, dropping ankle deep into the snow. She reached back into the cab. Her coat was gone—she must have dropped in the parking lot of the gym when Andrew surprised her. Her phone was gone. He’d tossed it out of the truck miles back, probably thinking someone would be able to track her location. She found a light knit jacket behind the seat of the truck. That wouldn’t do much against the cold temperatures, much less the wind and snow. But she didn’t have a choice. 
One shoe, her gym clothes, a gross limp jacket. Andrew wore a jacket, but she wasn’t going to risk rousing him to take it, if he was still alive.
She had to go.
But where? She was in the middle of nowhere, in a snowstorm. 
She knew this road, since they’d driven it to Andrew’s cabin in the past. Cabins were tucked in the trees all around them, and farmhouses in the stretches of land between the lakes. She just had to find one where someone lived.
Staying on the road was risky, if Andrew roused and followed her. She headed off the road toward the tree line. She’d walk along there until she saw another option.
She didn’t know how long she’d been traveling when she skidded to a stop at the edge of the lake, her one shoe drenched and filling with snow. She glanced back and looked at the path she’d left. She’d hoped the falling snow would have covered her footsteps, but because of the trees, the snow wasn’t reaching the ground on her path. It certainly was reaching her, though, soaking through her thin jacket.
In her moment of hesitation, she listened to the…well, the nothing. The falling snow muffled whatever sound might be around, but what she noticed most of all was the darkness. Darkness all around, except for one pale light on the other side of the lake. 
Someone’s cabin. This was a lake, so other cabins were likely situated between her and it, but probably empty. She could hide in one, break in. She would hate doing that but she was desperate. But what if the people had turned off power, water, their phone?  Would she be that much better off? Her best chance was that light, and she hoped it wasn’t just a porch light or something. 
She looked across the lake, considering taking that route. The surface should be frozen enough to walk upon, but she would be in the open and Andrew would see her. 
The path she’d left made her vulnerable enough, but she dared not retreat to erase it. She didn’t know how long Andrew would remain unconscious. She couldn’t risk coming out in the open. She was going to stick to the edge of the lake, in the shadows of the trees. 
She had never been so cold, and putting one foot in front of the other in her wet sock and slightly less wet gym shoe was hard and painful in the drifts. She was soaked practically to her knees, but she had no other choice. He would kill her if she went back. She was sure of it. She would rather die out here.
The sound of the wolf howling pierced through the sound of her own labored breathing. She stopped short, trying to figure out where the noise had come from. How far away was he? Was he alone, or did he have a pack? Were wolves like the velociraptors in that dinosaur movie, where one let his presence be known as the others moved in for the kill?
Freezing to death was one thing, but being hunted—that was something way different. Heart pounding as adrenaline surged, she moved a little farther out onto the lake, aware she risked being seen, but the snow was not as difficult to trudge through. She picked up a branch, because she knew she needed to hide her tracks, hide the direction she’d gone. She had chosen the lake because she thought Andrew would hunt for her down the road first. The road had more cover, but here at the lake she could see the other cabins. 
For all the good that did her.
She looked over her shoulder to see the branch was doing a piss-poor job of hiding her tracks, unlike what she’d seen in the movies, but if it disguised them just a bit, the snow could hide her path and buy her time.
The wolf howled again, and this time he seemed closer. But which direction? To her right? The direction she was heading? On the other side of the lake? She just couldn’t tell, and her terror would not allow her to stop to try to figure it out. 
Her next step was lower than expected, and she dropped like a rock. At first, she thought she’d broken through the ice, but no, she was just in a deeper drift, and now she was wet to the waist. 
God, she hoped that house was occupied and warm. It certainly didn’t seem to be getting any closer, though the howl of the wolf and the echoes of his companions certainly did. She had to get out of this weather. Her hands were growing numb, and her feet. But frostbite was way better than whatever Andrew had planned for her.
The cold wind cut through the thin jacket, felt like knives in her throat, in her nose. At least it wasn’t too cold to snow, though she had no idea what the temperature was, what the windchill was. She didn’t know how long she could be out here without dying, without losing her feet to frostbite. She just knew it couldn’t be too long.
As she approached the cabin she’d been focusing on, she noticed it was higher than the lake, on a ridge. God, was she going to have to climb a hill once she got across the lake? She looked behind her, and thankfully, she appeared to have come farther than the distance she had yet to travel, and while she could still see part of her path, the snow was obscuring it farther away.
What if…what if Andrew thought she had fallen through the ice? What if, once she reached the other side of the lake, she threw a rock or something to break through the ice, making it look like she’d fallen through? Would he stop looking for her?
If she even had the strength when she reached the other side. 
The presence of the wolves still worried her. She wouldn’t be able to hear their footsteps because of her own breathing and the rustle of the branch behind her.
The branch she could barely hold onto anymore. She’d dropped it twice, had to retrace her steps when she realized she no longer was carrying it.
Wasting precious steps, precious time, with no indication the effort was worth it. 
Her ears hurt. She wore nothing on her head, no protection, and ears could get frostbite too, right? She did not want to lose her ears. She loosened her hair from its braid to fall against her skin, hoping just the little extra protection would help.
That ridge, the closer she got, was looking higher and higher. She wasn’t going to have the strength. She was going to die here. She only hoped she froze to death before the wolves found her.
She stumbled and went down hard on her knees. The hand that wasn’t holding the branch. The impact knocked her breath from her, and the temptation to stay down, to give up, was nearly overwhelming. She’d never been so tired in her life.
Only her determination that goddamn Andrew was not going to kill her pushed her to her feet again. 
She was on the shore. She could feel it now, the unevenness of the ground beneath the snow. The cabin was above her, and, hallelujah, she found a staircase leading up the hill.
She pawed around in the snow until she found a boulder. She pried it free from the mud with fingers that were numb and aching. Lifting it was hard, too, because she felt like her arms were going to snap right off. But she lifted it over her head and heaved it with as much power as she could muster toward the lake, was disappointed when it didn’t crash through the ice, only made an indentation in the snow and bounced away a few feet. 
No way would Andrew think she’d fallen through the ice from that feeble attempt. But she didn’t want to dig around for another boulder. She needed to get to shelter.
She dropped the branch when she reached the bottom of the stairs. She had no way to hide her footsteps going up them, her grip on the wooden rails, so she wasn’t going to waste the energy trying. She needed all of her strength to put one foot in front of the other. She fell twice, once because she slipped on a frozen patch and once because she just couldn’t lift her leg high enough.  God she was so tired, and everything hurt.
And when she reached the top of the stairs, well, she was still going to have to maneuver a winding uphill path. She slid back more than once, and dropped to all fours to climb the last few feet to the yard.
She stood and looked up at the cabin. No wonder she could see it from across the lake. The place was pretty imposing, like the prow of a ship, the bottom covered with rocks, then a deck over her head, and above that the lovely lighted windows. 
She didn’t see a door, so rounded to the side of the house, and yes, there was a porch, with more steps. No cars in the driveway, but she saw a detached garage, so please, God, let the vehicles be inside.
She wasn’t thinking of the wolves anymore, or of Andrew, or even of the cold as she dragged herself up the stairs using the log rails.  
When she stood in front of the door, she imagined she could feel the warmth from within. She thought she heard a dog barking through the thick walls, but maybe that was the wolves. She was having trouble focusing. 
She suddenly found herself afraid of what was within. Someone who wasn’t expecting her, someone who lived out in the middle of nowhere, who might greet her with a gun.
But she couldn’t survive out here much longer. She didn’t have a choice. 
She raised her arm, wrapping her hand in the sleeve of the wet jacket, and banged on the door with her forearm. 
The door opened much faster than she expected, and a man filled the door frame.
Her gaze went to the chrome-plated handgun first, not pointed at her, but the tension in the tendons of his wrist let her know he was ready to use it. She stepped back, her hands up in front of her in surrender. Her foot slipped, and he lunged forward, catching her elbow, drawing her toward the door. She grabbed onto the front of his sweater and looked up into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Dark shaggy hair fell forward around his face, a beard shadowing a strong jaw. Her fingers flexed in reaction. He was big, and strong because he was still holding her up, off the ground, so she struggled to get her feet under herself so she had some power, at least. 
He guided her up and set her on her feet, but once she was standing, he looked around the exterior of the cabin. The gun, she saw then, was still in his hand.
“Are you alone? Why are you dressed like this?”
Now that she could feel the actual warmth from inside the cabin, she started shivering, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.
Still she managed to say, “I escaped.”
​

TWELVE YEARS LATER


Lacey Davila’s heart thundered in her chest as she sat before her computer monitor and opened Skype. The pregnancy test trembled in her hand as she logged in. Jesse would not be happy with the news. They hadn’t wanted to start a family yet, and she was taking birth control, but the last time he’d been on leave…
She had debated waiting to tell him, but she knew he’d get mad if she kept the news from him, too.
So she waited until he came on the screen, and forced a smile. She couldn't pretend to be too happy, or he’d think she’d planned this to trick him into marriage. But if she wasn't happy to see him, he would read something awful into that reaction as well.
Funny how he could frighten her with his moods from five thousand miles away.
“Hey, baby,” he said in a quiet voice, with a gentle smile. “Good to see you.”
Some of the muscles in her stomach loosened at that. He was in a good mood. For now.
She started the conversation focusing on him, what he’d been up to, because that’s what he liked. What did she have to share, living in a small town like Broken Wheel, Texas, anyway? He was the one living an adventure, deployed on the other side of the world.
Though to be honest, when he was talking about traveling to towns near the base in Germany, it didn't sound all that different than living in Broken Wheel. But she listened with an interested smile on her face until he turned the conversation to her.
“What’s new with you? You look terrible.”
Of course she looked terrible. She couldn't eat or sleep because of the morning sickness, which was really all-day sickness. “Well, I have some news.”
“Yeah? What? Something exciting happen in BFE? A new menu item at the diner or something?” He chuckled at his own cleverness. 
God. She was going to be tied to this man forever. What had she done? Why hadn’t she broken free when she had a chance, before she got pregnant? For a moment, she considered not telling him, keeping the news to herself. But she’d worked up the nerve, something that had taken her all day, and she was going to tell him. The consequences be damned. Her life was changing one way or another.
“I have some exciting news,” she modified. If she was excited, maybe he would be, too. She held up the pregnancy test, willing her hand not to shake, all the while watching for his reaction.
His expression froze, and for a moment she thought—hoped—it might be the computer. 
“You’re going to be a daddy,” she prompted.
“Whose is it?” he said through his teeth, and even thought she’d expected the accusation, the vehemence behind it gave her a jolt.
“Yours. Of course it’s yours.”
“Bull. We always use birth control. Why are you trying to pass someone else’s brat off as mine? You want my benefits or something?”
She would not see how his words hit her. She forced her chin up, and concentrated on keeping her voice steady. “I’m not. I’m on the pill. Or, I was until I took the test. But we always doubled up on protection, and before you left we…didn’t. So this baby must be meant to be.” She cursed the tears that filled her eyes  because he would read them as guilty.
It didn't matter. She already knew, before he started calling her names—names she’d heard before, and new ones, each one hitting her like a blow.
She didn't know why she sat and listened until her friend Poppy walked into the room, flipped him off on the screen, and ended the call.
“Why do you let him talk to you like that?” Poppy demanded, leaning against the desk and crossing her arms over her chest. “God, how I wish you’d never met him. You deserve so much better than that, Lace. I wish you could see that.”
She could see it, and many times over the last few months, she’d wished she had the strength to leave him. But then she remembered how devastated her dad was when her mother left, and she just couldn't bring herself to do it, not when Jesse was overseas. 
And now it was too late. She was tied to him forever.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084277DYQ​Get it now on Amazon! 

Summer was always a magical time for me growing up. Why? Because of books.


Most of my summer memories revolve around books.


Loading up the back of my dad’s car with my Trixie Belden collection because what if I ran out of things to read.


Going to the library at my elementary school, the one morning a week it was open. The school was one of those open concept ones from the 1960s, you know, and the library was the hub. All the classrooms were dark. The building was cool and quiet, and I pretty much had the place to myself. I’d walk out every week with armloads of books. Honestly, I don’t know how many times I went. Maybe it was only once, but the memory is strong. I can smell it, even now, nearly fifty years later.


Learning that the library would MAIL books to you. I remember getting a book about The Beatles, and it was mailed in one of those padded envelopes that sheds everywhere. 


Picking out books in the five and dime, my first Harlequins, usually chosen because of the horses on the cover. 


Most of my summer memories revolve around not just one book, but stacks of them. I was always happy to have the assurance that I’d have plenty to read. I don’t read real books very often now, but my Kindle is loaded with books. Now…to take the time to read them!

Yesterday I went on a winery trip with some of my teacher friends. We all used to teach together at some point, and I don’t remember how the winery trips started. But we’ve been doing them for five or six years now. We missed last year, of course, and we missed another year in there because we just couldn’t make our schedules work. We also meet for each birthday (again, we missed last year, except for Mary B.)


What’s most interesting about our group is the age gap. The oldest is 74, the youngest is 37. Three of us are retired (and all named Mary!) and the youngest of course is still teaching. Susan, the youngest, was born the year I graduated high school so it’s really three generations. The three who are retired have been retired less than ten years. 


We hadn’t all gotten together since about three days before everything shut down, when we celebrated Mary B’s birthday. But after a few minutes, it was like we’d never been apart. 


We went to the first winery in Johnson City, Texas, where we bonded with the server, also named Mary, and teased Susan we were going to swap her for a new Mary. We laughed and cried and moved to the next winery, where we enjoyed a sangria slushy and talked and looked at pictures of kids and grandkids and dogs. Talked about boyfriends and weed and health and online school.


We had brought snacks, but weren’t allowed to consume them there, so we drove into Fredericksburg to the park and had a picnic. Talked about principals and memories, traveling and plants, exchanged birthday presents.


We were going to go to one more winery, but it was already nearly four o’clock, so we headed home. When we parted, we gave each other extra hugs, because even though we plan to see each other next month, well, we said that last year, and it didn’t happen.


We spent about seven hours together and it went by in a blink. I am still on a high from the time spent with such good friends.

What are your favorite movies? I saw a meme about The Mummy the other day, and was reminded why it is my favorite movie. Right now we are watching Fellowship of the Ring and man, do I love this series.


I saw this article about comfort movies and I think my favorite movies fall more into this category, movies I can watch over and over again. 


So I was thinking about the rank. I aimed for 10, but couldn’t stop.

1. The Mummy
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy 
3. The Last Jedi
4. Jaws
5. Star Wars: A New Hope
6. Tangled
7. O Brother Where Art Thou
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
9. Jurassic Park
10. Romancing the Stone
11. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
12. Money Pit
13. So Proudly We Hail
14. Ghostbusters (both)
15. Bridget Jones’s Diary

I like the Marvel Universe as a whole, but couldn't say which movie is my favorite. Maybe the first Iron Man, maybe the first Guardians. 


I also have a number of chick flicks I like that I didn’t include: Two Weeks Notice, The Back-Up Plan, both Mamma Mia movies, Pitch Perfect.


What movies do you love? Are your favorites that because they’re just so good or because they’re something you can watch over and over?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I know I keep promising I’ll post more regularly and yet….


Puppy is growing, and I really would like to take her to get trained, because clearly just spending every minute with her isn’t enough to get her to do what I want. But our infection rates are still pretty high here in San Antonio, so I hesitate. 


She’s currently taking up most of the couch beside me. 


We’ve always watched a lot of TV, so 2020 didn’t change that for us. We have most of the streaming services. Our cellphone pays for Netflix, Spotify pays for Hulu, we pay for CBS and Disney, and we bought new phones so we have Apple for a year.


There have been a lot of fun shows.


We watched For All Mankind on Apple, which is an alternate history for the space race. Russia got to the moon first, had the first woman in space, and the US is racing to catch up. It’s really interesting, but this season is REALLY sad. We’re looking forward the new season starts next month.


We really enjoyed The Mandalorian, especially the second season. But we are big Star Wars geeks anyway.


We’re also watching WandaVision. I’m seeing a lot of criticism of it, but I’m loving it. It’s refreshing to see the Avengers outside of their group. Wanda and Vision were never my favorites, but this is fun and twisty, with lots of neat Easter eggs. 


Bridgerton was wonderful, beautiful and romantic, and not too angsty, just what I needed at the beginning of this year.


We have made it about halfway through 30 Rock but I’ve started rewatching Schitt’s Creek. I thought Schitt’s Creek was pretty brilliant in their character arcs, plus, best romance on television. I actually found some fabric on Spoonflower and made myself a little zipper pouch, and want to do a mask.


Lovecraft Country was really weird but really awesome. Super creepy and wild. I wish for another season, but I don’t know if it would be necessary.


We’re watching The Stand, but it doesn’t compare to the series from the 1990s. You just don’t get to know the characters well enough. We have the DVD from the 1990s series so we’re going to rewatch to compare the two. I thought Harold was perfectly cast, and Skarsgard, but didn’t really care for the casting for the rest of it. And, while I’m not easily scandalized, I thought it went over the top with the nudity and profanity.


We also watched Star Trek: Discovery, which we really liked.


Another one we watched is The Expanse (yes we watch a lot of sci-fi!) I’m not liking it as much this season because the crew is all separated. I liked the visit to Earth, which hasn’t played much of a role in the series. I would have liked to see more Bobbie, the Martian soldier, though. 


I think the new Ted Danson show, Mr. Mayor, or something, is cute and funny. I like workplace comedies, and Holly Hunter is surprisingly funny.


I enjoy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, but haven’t watched the new season. The last episode last year gutted me. 


So what have you been watching lately?​

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this year has been nuts, But while everyone can list all the horrible things this year, I have been thinking of the blessings.

My husband has been working from home since the end of March. Now, we have been married 33 years, and I'd, at that point, only been retired 10 months. I was NOT sure how it was going to work. 

I love it. For the first few months, he worked out of our son's old bedroom, on an old computer desk, you know, the pressboard kind that used to be like $100. He used a kitchen chair. He hated it. Over the summer he decided he was miserable in there, and moved to this other room off our kitchen, one which we mostly use for storage. But he cleaned it up very nice, bought new office furniture, which I will use for sewing when he goes back to work, and he's much more comfortable. 

Anyway, back to me loving him working from home. No more commute, so he walks into his office with his coffee at 8:30, walks out at 5:30, and we eat lunch together nearly every day. (Okay, the lunch thing has been a challenge lately--getting kinda bored with sandwiches and such.) But while some days having a rigid schedule is hard for me, most days I just love it. 

Another blessing is that it is THIS year instead of LAST year. My brother had 2 strokes in December 2018, and was in the hospital and rehabilitation for three months. We would not have been able to visit him over that time, and that would have been so challenging.

Another is that I've been able to see my family. We've all been very careful, but I've been able to see my parents and brothers at least a couple of times a month over the past few months. 

And lastly, I've gotten to know my neighbors. Like I said, I'd been retired 10 months when this all started, but most people were working. Now everyone is outside, working in their yards, eager to see other people. 

​I hope you're able to find blessings in your year!