If I call and reassure her, she might worry less. If I’m lucky, she hasn’t thought about checking my location. But she knows me. If she calls, she’ll sense the weirdness in my tone. And that might make her look me up if she hasn’t already. Damn it.

“You look deep in thought,” Josh says.

“I’m trying to decide whether to lie to my mother,” I tell him honestly.

“You can lie to your mom?” Brecken laughs. “My mom could work for the FBI. I can’t keep anything from her.”

I sigh, pocketing my phone. “Me either. It’s like a mutant power.”

Harper puts her head back against the seat, her phone at her ear. “This is taking forever.”

“They’re probably getting a ton of calls,” Josh says. “All these accidents.”

“We should get snacks and use the bathroom while we’re here,” Brecken says. “Just in case we can’t find another rest stop.”

“We don’t even know if we can keep driving this thing,” Harper says.

“And with the pileups…” My eyes drift to the police car blocking the entrance ramp.

Josh’s eyes follow mine, and he frowns. “It is really bad. The back roads are probably worse, but we’ll have them to ourselves I bet.”

“Exactly,” Brecken says. “We can go as slow as we need to. This thing has incredible traction. I had no problems until we got on that downslope, and that only happened because I was on a highway and couldn’t take it really slow.”

“I don’t know,” Harper says, sounding uncertain. “But I know I can’t stay here. My signal is terrible, and I need to get home.”

“I know,” Brecken says softly. “I have no desire to stay here.”

Well, that makes several of us. My mother needs me, and my phone has crap signal too, so staying in this parking lot for the twelve hours it might take to clear up the wrecks is not an option for me. I’ll strap on cross-country skis or steal a horse or something if I have to.

“Well, I think I’d rather take my chances going slow than waiting for the highway to reopen,” I say. “That could take all night.”

“Agreed. I’m sure the hell not spending Christmas Eve night in some redneck gas station,” Brecken says. “There aren’t even card readers on the pumps. Want me to pay inside?”

“No, I’ve got it,” Harper says, waving him off.

“I’m going to hit the head,” Brecken says, stepping out.

“Good plan.” Josh reaches for his crutches and Kayla abruptly sits up, wiping drool off her cheek.

“Where are we?” she asks as Josh gets out. He slowly follows Brecken toward the gas station.

“A gas station,” I say. “They closed the highway.”