If Only She'd Loved Him

Saturday 6:20 pm

With effort, Jean pulled herself away from Matt, listening. The rain had fallen to a low tapping against the roof.

"I think the worst is over. We have to go now." Reaching over, she hugged herself into his arms. "Thank you." She didn't need to say more.

He smiled back at her, his eyes soft and glowing. "When this is all over, you and I get to start again. We'll have a real date. Go to a movie. Hit a club. I don't care. I want to get to know you. I want to know all of you."

"You're off to a good start," she couldn't hold back the giggle, she felt so warm inside, then she caught herself. "Later, for now we find Megan, get her the hell away from Erik, and then we deal with the future." She tied on her shoes. She tried not to touch his hair, then gave in to the impulse. He took her hand and kissed it.

His lips made her want to dance in the rain, but she pulled away and reached for the door handle.

"Now we just have to find a phone and call the cops."

Matt finished tying on his own shoes. He patted her on the arm. "Just a second, let's plan this first. You didn't see any lights when you were out there before, and I don't see any now. We don't want to just go wandering in the woods and get lost."

"Don't be an idiot," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "We're along a highway. We're not going to get lost. We just need to flag down a car."

"Right," he mumbled. Well, he didn't have to worry about her getting all soft and gooey-eyed on him, but her tone seemed a little harsh. Still, she was right. "You said you keep a flashlight in your car? Is it a big one? he asked.

She thought for a second. "I think so. Yeah, I'm sure it would be. It's in my emergency kit. You know so if I got stranded in a blizzard, I could survive on old chocolate and granola bars."

"Great, why don't you find it?"

Jean rummaged in the back of her car, tossing papers and empty soda cans on the floor. "I know it's here somewhere," she said.

Matt ducked as a paperback nearly clipped him on the chin.  Baker's Best Dozen. Hold on a minute, he thought. He held up the book. "I thought you said you couldn't cook?"

"I can't. I can bake, doesn't mean I can cook."

"Can you make chocolate chip cookies?"

"Sure, easy," she returned to her rummaging.

Matt smiled. Hot, warm cookies fresh from the oven. Fresh warm cookie crumbs scattered in between sheets.

Beaming from the backseat, Jean held up a torn cardboard box. "Found it!" Shoving the canned goods to the side, she lifted the heavy silver flashlight out of the box. It glowed feebly as she flipped it on, flickering on and off, finally settling to a yellow dot, before it winked out entirely.

"Let me guess," Matt grimaced, but he just couldn't resist rubbing it in, after her highway comment. "You never changed the batteries."

"They're rechargeable," she argued back, hitting the flashlight against the seat cushion, hoping to shock it into working again. "They're supposed to last forever."

"Not if you don't recharge them," he pointed out. "I don't suppose you have any spare ones?"

"No."

"We'll just have to make do with your phone's light. Maybe now that the rain has settled, traffic will pick up again."

Jean pulled the sleeves of her sweater as far down as they would go. "Ready to hit the road?" she asked.