7

Andy steers the car out of the parking lot, turning it out onto the still abandoned road. Once they are heading away from The Darn Good Diner, he turns to look at Lacey and frowns at her regretfully.  “Baby, I am so sorry.”

“Andy, it's not like-”

“No, honey, just listen to me for a second. Really. I am sorry for all of this. I hate fighting with you.” Andy tells her, laying a hand on her arm to give it a gentle squeeze. "I know that I made you upset with me when I chose to help Nate and I am sorry that I made you angry. You know how much I hate being at odds with you. I love you so much."

Lacey thought at first that he was apologizing for not believing her about Nate. That he wa sorry for being so oblivious to everything that was going on around him. Or perhaps for getting them in this odd situation in the first place. So when he turns to her once more and speaks, she is surprised by his words. “How about we just forget this little disagreement of ours and I will forgive you for threatening me with the kids.”

“I was not threatening you with the kids, Andy! I was trying to protect my children!” Lacey tells him, pulling her arm out from beneath his touch and giving him an incredulous look.

“This was not me just trying to use the kids against you to get my way or anything of that sort. I did not use them to try to win an arguement or to hold something over you. It was never once my intention to hurt you. This was all about me doing what I felt that I had to do, because you were oblivious to all the crap going on with Nate. That man was a freak and you were totally ignoring that major fact. You acted like it was no big deal having a strange man in the car with our children, dispite the fact that he was creepy and unnerving. In spite of me constantly telling you how uncomfortable I was with the situation and how I did not want to do it.”

“Lacey-”

“No.” She holds up a hand to stop his words. “You were the one in the wrong and you don't even see it. Maybe what I did was wrong as well, I can admit that. But you do not even see the part you played in this, and that, to me, is truly infuriating. So I think that we should probably refrain from talking to each other for a little while, before anything else gets said. I am very upset and I do not want to say something to you out of anger that I might come to regret later.”

“Like what? I don't understand what it is that has you so worked up-”

And that is the problem!

“Andy. No. I am serious. I need a bit of time to calm down before we can talk.”

Lacey turns to look out the window, watching the snow fall down on the world. She is lost in her thoughts, as she ponders his earlier words. He really does not seem to understand what it is that is bothering her.

Despite everything that he has seen tonight and all the signs that were always right there under his nose, he somehow managed to miss every single on of them. How is that? How does that happen?

Is it that Andy does not actually pay attention to her? Or that he does not pay attention to the things that go on around the two of them that pertain to her? Does he walk around in his own little world or something? Because she can not for the life of her understand how he could not see how Nate really was. Unless Andy chose to be blind to it. He had to be willfully choosing to not acknowledge the warning signs about Nate.

Maybe it was because he was so completely fooled by Nate, Lacey supposes, although she does not understand how that could be. He was so focused on being a 'good person' and helping Nate out in his time of need, that he fixated on the act of helping someone and not on the actual person that he was helping. Because Andy is usually a very astute man, so for him to let all of this slip past him is highly out of character. As well as highly irritating.

Maybe that is why she finds herself feeling so resentful towards him. Every other aspect of his life, Andy is so thoughtful and meticulous about every little plan, down to the very last detail. He thinks everything that he says or does through. Twice. He is like some kind of machine at times, when he gets so focused on something. 

Then today it is like he is like a totally different person. He is a man who goes against his wife's wishes and picks up a total stranger from the side of the road, to give him a ride in the same car as their children. He ignores the obvious lies and falsehoods that the man tells, choosing to believe the obviouly bogus tales. He pays no attention to the creepy man and concerning behavior that he exhibits, like the way that he was staring at her incessantly. That was disturbing behavior and he willfully ignored it. 

Does it not bother him that another man is staring at his wife like that? She knows that he has never been the jealous, controlling type. He is not the kind of man the will not even let his wife talk to other men because they see it as a threat. That was not how he was or had ever been. So maybe he ignored that because he trusted her and knew that she would not pay Nate and his flirting any attention. But he never should have ignored her concerns. 

That angered her, yes. But it had also hurt her feelings. It was as if he did not value her thoughts or her feelings. Anyone who can listen to their wife say that she was uncomfortable with a situation and do it anyways, does not value her like he should. It implies that he thinks that his thoughts and opinions matter more that his wife's.

Lacey had never known him to act like that before, but maybe he always has and she just never noticed it before. Maybe he has always devalued her opinions but it took today when a serious issue arose for her attention to be drawn to the fact. Either way, she is going to have a serious discussion with him about this, whenever some of her anger fades. She wants to discuss the situation like two rationals adults. Not argue like children.

She is trying to get her mind away from all things Nate in order to give her anger a chance to fade. Then Lacey remembers something. Andy lied to Nate about his job and where they lived. Why would he do that if he was not noticing some of the same red flags that she was. Maybe it was on some deep, down subconcious level that he realized that Nate was odd and he, without thought, decided to lie, without even knowing why.

Or maybe he did realize that there was something off about Nate, but he did not want to admit it. Because then he would have to admit that he was wrong and that Lacey was right. She never would have a listed pride or vanity as a flaw of his before, either, but she is beginning to think that after today, maybe she does not know him quite as well as she always thought she did.

Either way, Lacey was glad that he had told the lies. She usually does not condone lying for any reason, but the thought of that man having any information about her family worries her beyond belief. Lacey also realized that Andy was not the only one who was acting out of character today.

Her behavior today was not at all like her, either. Lacey is a genuinely open and friendly person typically, not a closed off shrew who thinks that every stranger is some kind of villian. Yet, that is how she has acted today. Maybe she is just overly tired and stressed out from the upcoming holidays. Christmas in known to be a highly stressful time for many people. She could be using her own inner turmoil to paint others in a bad light. Maybe there was nothing wrong with anyone else and it was all her.

Could everything that happened tonight have been in her head? Is that why Andy did not notice anything wrong with Nate? Because there was not anything 'off' about him? Was he really just a perfectly normal widow, looking to lose himself for the holidays and ran into some bad luck along the way? Was her overly active imagination making her the crazy one?

“Dang, this storm is really getting bad out there.”

Andy's hushed words break into her thoughts and Lacey lifts her head from the cold window with a start, looking around the dark interior of the car. Andy and both of the children are fine. Turning to look out the front window, Lacey notices that the roads are now completely covered with white, powdery snow on top of the previous layer of ice.

The snow is falling hard and fast, obscuring the road and the rest of their surroundings from their sight. Andy is driving at a fairly slow rate, but it is still dangerous to drive in these conditions. Lacey hopes and prays that they make it to Minnesota safely.

“Hopefully the snow will let up soon or we will drive out of the bad weather.” Lacey comments in a falsely optimistic tone.

“I do not think that is going to be happening any time soon. If I am not mistaken, then we have just driven straight into the horrible blizzard that everyone has been so anxiously expecting.” Andy tells her, never taking his eyes away from the road.

Lacey watched the heavy snow continue to fall as it blanketed the ground, giving the small car even more snow to trudge through and she silently agrees with Andy. They have indeed run into the snow storm. The inches are rapidly accumulating and the weather shows no sign of stopping.

“We can not continue on with the roads like this and the snow still falling this hard. This is by far way too dangerous for us to continue to drive in. We are going to have to find some place that we can stop for the night and wait out the storm.” Lacey tells him, before she turns around once more to check on the children.

Sunny is staring out the window in delight, seemingly mesmerized by the fat flakes of falling snow. Jack is playing his hand held gaming console once more, but he too keeps casting furtive glances out his window at the snow. Both children love the snow. Sunny finds it magical, how fluffy it looks and how it sparkles in the light. Jack just likes throwing snowballs at people and piling the fresh powder up to make forts or snowmen.

Once she has assured herself that the kids are okay, she turns back around to sit in her seat correctly. Andy turns to look at her and says. “We had better find some where to stay pretty fast, because we are probably already up to three inches of accumulated snow and it is still falling down at an alarmingly fast rate.”

“We can not get stranded on the side of the road in this storm. It could take days before anyone found us. Spending Christmas freezing half to death in a cramped car would probably be the worst memory that a child could ever have.” Lacey tells him in a panic. Beides the fact that they could easily freeze to death in the negative temperatures. 

“They are not going to spend the next few days in the car, Lacey. Try to calm yourself. Just keep a look out on the side of the road for anything that might point us in the right direction to find lodging for the evening. Unless we have already missed it, there should be a sign somewhere through here.” Andy tells her, his eyes scanning the area around the road.

“You know, tonight has not really been our night for seeing signs, if you remember.” Lacey tells him in a caustic tone with a sardonic look. “But what kind of sign, pray tell, should I be on the look out for?”

“A sign pointing us towards the motel- Ah, there it is!” Lacey looks around but does not see whatever it was that Andy thought he saw. She is completely startled when he turns the car suddenly, going down a path between trees into what appears to simply be woods. The back end of the vehicle slides a little on the ice, but he gets the vehicle under control once more without incident. How did he know that this narrow little road was here? It was as if he knew to look for this exact opening in the trees.

“What are you doing?” Lacey asks him, surprised. “Where are we going?”

“To the motel.” Andy answers her in a tone that implies that the answer to that question should already be obvious. Lacey has to hold back a sarcastic retort.

“What motel would that be, exactly?” Lacey asks him warily. Please do not tell me that he is doing what I think he is doing, Lacey think to herself.

“Lace, I know exactly how you feel about the situation, but be reasonable and think this through. We are completely out of options here. We can not keep on driving through this storm. It is getting way too dangerous out here. I personally do not want to run the risk of getting stranded out here with the kids in below freezing temperatures. This motel offers a warm room with beds, full of blankets. Heat. A toilet. That is why I am going there. It's not like this is an ideal scenario for me either.”

Lacey hears his words and she knows that he is right, but she does not want to stop here. She can not help that feeling, it is there all the same. If this is the motel that Nate had mentioned then it is not somewhere that she wants to be. At all or for any reason.

Yet Andy had made a valid point. It is far too dangerous out on the roads and if she forced him to carry on, she would only be risking the safety of her children, which is not something that she would ever want to do.

So, for the sake of her beloved children, she sucks it up and pushes aside her feelings as they drive through the trees in the falling snow. There is not much that she would not do for her kids, to keep them safe and happy. Like ignoring the feeling that they are headed straight to Hell, the further that they drive down the road.