She had her purse over her shoulder and her keys in her hand, so he gathered she was leaving, too. But she was hesitating, so he guessed she wanted to say something to the Foxworths without him hanging around. Oddly, it was Cutter who protested his departure the most energetically, almost blocking the door and looking from him to Amanda and back, his gaze intense, as if he were trying to communicate something. He whined slightly, and it had such a worried sound Adam almost laughed at the dog. But something about this animal made laughing at him seem...inappropriate, if not foolish.

It was Hayley who called him back to her, also oddly by saying to the dog, “Not yet.”

When he was back in the truck, he remembered he was going to need gas. Might as well do it now in the hopes of an early start home in the morning. Or maybe he should just start home now, and hope they had the pass plowed by the time he got there. Not that it would do much good if it was still coming down that fast and thick, but he’d feel better.

Until you got stuck up there and had to tough it out in freezing temps or ended up in a snowdrift with the truck wrecked.

His map program told him the nearest gas station was a couple of miles away, on the way to the ferry. He found it easily and pulled in. He rather grimly watched the numbers on the pump roll as he filled the truck’s large fuel tank. He’d just finished the hit to his debit card when it struck him that he and Amanda would likely be on the same ferry going back to the other side. And for a moment he seriously pondered either waiting for the next one, some forty-five minutes later, or driving a half hour to the nearest other ferry. But a glance at his watch told him that would dump him in downtown Seattle at a peak traffic hour, and even if he survived to get on the freeway he’d be going through peak traffic there, too. Even though it was less than half as far, it would likely take him four times as long. Not something he wanted to deal with.

At least the blue classic car would be easy to spot. He would just stay several vehicles behind her, and once on board he would stay in the truck, he thought. Then he would never encounter her, because she certainly wouldn’t approach him.