Chapter One

Twenty-year-old Mia Jones sighed deeply as she unlocked her apartment door.

“Thank God finals week is over,” she muttered, tossing her backpack on the couch.

“I know, right?” her roommate Cheryl chimed in from the kitchen. “Mine was brutal.”

“Tell me about it,” Mia retorted. “And, I tried to get out of there before Derrick could corner me – again – and ask me out – again. But I didn’t move fast enough.”

Cheryl appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“Again? What part of ‘no’ does that boy not understand?”

“Both letters, from the way he acts,” came Mia’s reply, making Cheryl snort back a laugh. “He looks genuinely shocked every time I refuse, but he won’t take the hint and stop asking me. I guess he thinks he’s going to wear me down eventually?”

“And I’ve got a newsflash for him – that will never happen. You’re much too stubborn to be swayed,” Cheryl chimed in with a smirk. “Especially when a guy comes at you like he’s God’s gift and keeps calling you ‘babe’.”

Mia grinned back. “Yep, so not helping his cause with that.”

She glanced at her watch. Four-thirty.

“Okay, I’m headed for a quick shower.”

“A quick shower? Why? When are you heading out? Do you have time to eat dinner before you go? I’m making spaghetti.”

“I told Mom I’d be there no later than ten a.m. tomorrow morning to help her get everything decorated and done. But part of me says hustle out of here and try to beat the storm that’s coming in. Have you been outside today? It’s already raining, and the temperature’s dropping like a rock.”

“And if you stay here overnight,” Cheryl pointed out, “you might not make it out of Lubbock at all for a day or two.”

“Exactly what I’m afraid of.”

Mia set her jaw as she pondered her options.

“I think I’ll be okay. If I leave within the next hour, I’ll get there by nine-thirty tonight. Good thing I packed already!”

Cheryl chuckled and shook her head.

“Like that’s a surprise. You’re the most organized, plan-every-last-detail woman I know.”

“I love you too, smarty-pants,” Mia called out as she went down the hall to her room to grab clean underwear, some socks, her yoga pants, and a hoodie to put on after her shower.

The blissful sensation of wonderfully warm water was short-lived; as much as Mia loved nothing better than taking long, hot showers, she knew the sooner she got on the road toward home, the better.

She grumbled to herself as she reluctantly turned off the water, wrapped one towel around her hair and another around her body, and stepped out onto the plush bathmat. She hurriedly dried off her body and dressed, knowing that drying her hair would take the most time.

Ten minutes later, once it was finally all dried, she brushed back her long black hair, pulling it into a ponytail before quickly braiding it and securing the end with a hair tie. Mia carried her hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant into her bedroom to add them to her suitcase, then slipped on a baseball cap and her tennis shoes.

She took one last look around her bedroom, making sure she had everything she needed, then hoisted her suitcase off the bed and headed back toward the living room.

“Are you sure you don’t have time to eat? It’s almost ready,” Cheryl offered.

“I’m sorry, Cheryl, but I really do need to get going now if I want to outrun the storm. But tell your folks hi and Merry Christmas for me,” she told Cheryl as she hugged her.

“Well, at least hit a drive-through on your way out. And don’t forget to call or text me when you get there, all right? Please? You know I worry about you driving at night by yourself.”

“Geez, now you sound like Blake and my mother,” Mia teased. “Yes, Cheryl, I will text you. And I’ll see you in two weeks, okay?”

With Cheryl placated for the time being, Mia lugged her suitcase out the front door and down the stairs, depositing her luggage in her car’s backseat before she climbed behind the wheel and turned the ignition key. It took a bit for her car to warm up enough to leave.

After a few minutes, she backed out of her parking space and headed toward the apartment complex’s front entrance. She’d just turned out onto the main road when her stomach growled loudly, and she immediately detoured to the closest fast-food place to grab dinner on the move.

***

One hundred sixty miles southwest of Lubbock, twenty-eight-year-old Tanner Greysen frowned to himself as he poured coffee from his Thermos into his mug.

“Gonna be a long night,” he muttered to himself as he watched the radar screen on his phone’s weather app. Earlier in the day the meteorologist had predicted the incoming storm could be one of the most severe in the area in decades.

That keeps tracking like it is, it damn sure will be, Tanner had thought with a grimace when the weatherman’s predictive graphic had popped up during the six o’clock news.

And of course, this would be the week I tell Marcus I can cover the place for a few days while he’s gone. No telling how many idiot people I’m gonna get to go rescue out in this stuff. I wouldn’t even attempt to go anywhere once this storm hits if I didn’t have to…

Now, perched on the stool behind the counter at Marcus’s Garage & Towing, he could only bide his time until the inevitable calls for help started coming in.

Within the hour, flashing skies and the windsock standing straight out from its pole let Tanner know the wintery beast was about to pounce – with teeth bared. He sighed and set his mug down, then walked around the counter and over to the coatrack that held two pairs of insulated coveralls. He checked the sizes, making sure to grab the set that would adequately cover his six-foot-two, two-hundred-twenty-pound frame, then returned to his seat to wait for the first distress signal