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Everything in her mind was numb and disbelief. Staring at the remnants of her car, the shock faded and reality crept in. “We were in a car wreck.”
    “Yeah, you were.” There were two men, both of them standing there in the wet, looking at her like she was crazy.
    Where were they? She whipped her head around. The road was a few yards back, the black asphalt dark and shining, rain still falling. Behind them, tire marks tore earth from beneath the brown-gray grass, and she took a step through flattened branches. They were at the base of an embankment, the nose of the car buried in brush. Headlights shattered.
    The rear bumper lay on the ground behind them.
    Holy shit. She looked up and met the gaze of one of the men. “What do we do?”
    The other guy was still hunched over the window, talking to Nate.
    Nate.
    Jesus.
    The man was talking, telling her things about tow trucks and police, but she wasn’t listening. She was stepping over dead wood and leaves and shoving her body into the gap in the doorway. The door wouldn’t open all the way and there wasn’t much space, but she could see. She could see Nate.
    “Nate.”
    His head whipped around, his eyes not quite focused as they found hers.
    “We crashed the car,” she said, breathless.
    “I know.”
    “But you’re okay.”
    “I’m okay.” He looked unsure, the tremor to his voice and the fear in his gaze unnerving her. “You’re okay.”
    “Yeah. Yeah.” She reached up and pulled her hair back and out of her face. Winced at the tug across her collarbone. It wasn’t bad, though. She felt the spot through her clothes. It was sound. No cracks or breaks in the bone.
    “I’m so sorry, Cass. I’m so sorry. I just started spinning and—”
    And he’d handled it better than she probably would have, Northern upbringing aside. “It’s fine. We’re okay.”
    “We are.”
    She stood again and turned her attention back to the people who’d braved the cold and wet to help them. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
    “You have a phone?”
    “Yeah. We’re good.” She’d never felt such gratitude. “You can probably go.”
    “You’re sure?”
    She nodded, then reached back into the car and felt around for her phone. When she found it eventually, it was in the back seat, half the case missing but the screen intact. After telling Nate what she was doing, she dialed 911, kneeling on the passenger’s seat, one foot still on the ground through the gap in the door. With a cracking voice, she stated their location and the nature of their emergency. Let herself be transferred and kept it together all the while, explaining, giving mile markers. No, no other vehicles involved. No serious injuries. The good Samaritans finished speaking to Nate and then they disappeared into the gray, back to their vehicle. To safety.
    “All right, ma’am. We’ll have an officer out to you right away. Stay in your vehicle until then.”
    She nodded even though the dispatcher couldn’t see her. “Okay. Okay.”
    The line went dead, and she fell into her seat. Closed her eyes. There was warmth, the heat of Nate’s body as it reached across hers, the sound of the door pulling all the way closed and then just the silence and the rain. The silence and the rain and them.
    And she was shaking. She was shaking so hard.
    “Come here.”
    She bumped her thigh on the gearshift and hit her head on the ceiling. Could barely breathe for the pressure of the steering wheel against her side. Hands pulled her and quiet words soothed, and then she was there, in Nate’s lap, his arms so tight around her, his breath warm in her hair.
    He rocked her.
    And the whole time, he whispered, “We’re okay. You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.”

Chapter Five
    It wasn’t the first time Nate had held Cassie. But unlike all the other times, all the little hugs and big hugs and the embraces that fell somewhere in between, this time he didn’t let go. Not when the state trooper finally arrived an