Hayden hit the brakes, muttering a curse.
From the backseat, we heard, “Ooo, Mommy, he said a bad word!”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at him.
“Keep going straight,” I said.
When the light turned green, Hayden headed straight. “Okay, now what?”
I zoomed out on the map. “Um, just keep going straight. I’m trying to find a place for us to turn around.”
So we kept going straight as building after building of rose-colored stone passed by. White Christmas lights wrapped around old fashioned street lamps would have made the drive a nice one, if we weren’t lost and tired and hiding from the law. Not to mention the ice pellets still pelting the windshield and making it tough to read the street signs.
“Tarah? Got a new route yet?” Hayden grumbled.
“Working on it,” I snapped. “Just keep going straight. There’s a place to turn around up ahead.”
The buildings ended, and we drove beneath a metal arch. I could barely make out the words “Sioux Falls Park.”
The ice pellets stopped falling just as we headed underneath a metal railroad bridge. As the road curved sharply to the left, the view ahead burst into life with countless numbers of Christmas lights.
“Turn right here,” I whispered.
We’d reached the waterfalls for which the city had been named.
As we viewed the area, lit up by display after display of animated lights in white and gold and green and red, I suddenly realized. It was almost Christmas.
“Look, Momma,” Kristina whispered in the backseat.
I didn’t trust myself to speak, afraid my voice would come out all choked up. After everything our group had gone through, the combined sight of the snow-covered grounds all lit up like a winter wonderland, falling away into the icy waterfalls, was almost too much to believe. It was like waking from a too long nightmare into a fantasy fairytale.
“Good detour?” I asked.
“Yeah. Good detour.” Hayden returned my smile with one of his own.
Behind us, the bus rocked a little, probably from everyone rushing over to look out the right side windows at the falls.
“Hey, Hayden, everything all right up there?” Bud asked through the walkie talkie.
“Yeah,” Hayden said, clearing his throat as his voice came out in a croak. “Don’t let anyone out. We won’t be here long enough for that. We’re just turning around. But let’s give them a couple more minutes.”
Hayden reclipped the walkie talkie onto his belt then leaned back, staring out the windows at the sight before us. Without looking at me, his hand slid over to hold mine. Surprised at the gesture and a little confused by it too, I wanted to look down at our hands laced together on my thigh but was afraid doing so might break the moment. So I simply squeezed his hand and kept staring at the color changing lights that turned the ice draped waterfalls red then green then blue, grateful to be here in this moment with him.
Something tightened so hard in my chest that it was almost a struggle to breathe. I wanted to memorize every detail of this moment so I would never forget it. I tried to remember what Jeremy had said about using all five senses so I could be a good reporter. But all I could see was the surreal beauty of the winter wonderland, and all I could feel was that strong hand, so large compared to my own, heating up my skin everywhere we made contact.
After another few minutes, Hayden sighed, eased his hand from mine and reached for the walkie talkie again. “Okay, Bud, let’s get going.”
CHAPTER 14
Hayden
Twenty minutes later, we pulled into Grandma Letty’s driveway. Her house, a huge Victorian situated on a hilltop at the end of a winding dirt and gravel road, was a welcome sight. The driveway ended in a cement pad in front of a three car garage, giving Bud plenty of room to park the bus beside my truck. Slowly, with stiff movements of obvious soreness or fear or both, everyone got off the bus and gathered on the wraparound porch.
I rang the doorbell with no idea what to expect. The last time I’d seen my father’s mother was at Damon’s funeral, and even then she hadn’t stayed long. Since he had become a senator, my father apparently hadn’t wanted anyone to know about his witch of a mother, though I used to think it was because she was a little too blunt to be politically correct. Contact with her had consisted of only a few cards each year on the holidays.
The door opened to reveal a stooped over old woman in brown slacks and a pink and brown polka dotted blouse with a floppy bow at the neck. Her body seemed frail, but her gaze was still as sharp as I’d remembered it beneath that same perfectly poufed salt and pepper helmet hair.
“Hi, Grandma,” I said. “Uh, I hope you were telling Tarah the truth about having room for about fifty people ‘cause...here we are.”
Her papery cheeks bunched into a big smile as she stepped forward to grab my shoulder. “Hayden Shepherd. My lord, you’ve grown tall! Come here and give your grandma a hug.” She tugged me down to her height with a grip that was none too shabby. I awkwardly patted her back, afraid I’d break her bones if I patted too hard.
“Is this Tarah?” she said, turning to her. “Yep, just as pretty as I pictured you from your voice on the phone. But my lord it’s cold out here! Come inside, please, everyone come on in.”
She led us all inside, where the group sort of spilled across the adjoining living and dining rooms, growing noisy as Grandma Letty insisted on make refreshments in the kitchen and Pamela, Tarah and a few other weary women helped her. I joined them, needing to warn my grandmother about the bus driver and our church group cover story. I spoke to her in as low a voice as I could, praying she wasn’t deaf since the living room, only yards away from the open kitchen area, was closed off by only an L-shaped wall with large arched doorways leading to the kitchen and dining rooms.
“I’ve got just the thing for him.” With a wink, she grabbed a tiny bottle from a nearby cabinet, poured a healthy dose of it into one of the hot chocolates the ladies were fixing trays of, and told Pamela to be sure the bus driver got that drink. Nodding, Pamela took the tray of drinks into the living room.
“Grandma, we don’t want to kill—” I started to say, but she shushed me.
“A potion of sleepy time herbs, completely harmless. From the looks of this group you’ve brought me, a few more could do with a dose of it too.” Her thin lips pressed themselves temporarily out of existence.