I ran through the store, grabbed the milk and coffee, and saved my sweet tooth for a jumbo muffin that I’d eat for breakfast. As I was walking to my car, I narrowed my eyes.

Was my tire flat?

The closer I got, the more certain I grew. Yep. It was flat. I could limp it to a pump, fill it, and get home, but then it’d deflate overnight. Randall would insist on putting on the spare after the car had been sitting out in the cold all night.

I dug out my phone—and stopped. Who was I going to call?

Aiden?

He’d flown me to Indianapolis and back. Was it fair for him to keep bailing me out?

Mom and Randall?

No, I didn’t want to disrupt their evening in the middle of a workweek.

Jason?

He worked at the refinery too, and I never knew what shift he was on. Sophie would know how to change a tire, but she did shift work too at the hospital.

I would do it my damn self.

Randall had made sure my brothers and I knew how to do the basics. But changing a tire was easier on a wheel that’d been taken off and put on three other times. Wrestling lug nuts off after an impact wrench tightened them had to be harder.

I tossed my items in the passenger seat and dug out the manual. I managed to find the tire-change kit under my back seat. The metal of the jack sapped heat through my thin gloves. I hadn’t made it to the tire yet and my fingers were getting numb.

My breath puffed around me as I squatted, placed the lug nut wrench, and strained.

Nothing budged.

Was I going the right way? Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.

I tried again and had to stop and flex my fingers. I placed the wrench over a different lug nut. Same effect.

Shit.

All I needed to do was get on the spare and I could bring the car in tomorrow. I didn’t work until noon.

I tried every single nut and none of them made me optimistic. I dropped the tools and looked around. The flat was on the opposite side as the store. My efforts were blocked by my car and no one paid me any mind.

I slid into the car, started it, and took out my phone. With numb fingers, I called Aiden.

He answered on the first ring, his deep voice warming me more than the heat pumping out of the vents. “Kate.”

“I have a flat and I can’t get the tire off.”

“Where are you?”

I rattled off the grocery store and finished with “Sorry to bother you.”

“It’s not a problem. I’ll be right there.” He hung up.