into the passenger seat, and he slid behind the wheel, then adjusted the seat to give himself enough legroom. She was glad the car was neat. Sometimes the back was full of items she hadn’t needed for a staging.
“Where do you want to eat?” he asked.
She thought for a moment. He’d asked her last time, and she’d suggested a place called the Pasta Station in Lisbon. Could she start changing their history by changing the venue? “There’s a little restaurant and bakery in Ellicott City. Genevieve’s,” she said, naming a place that was miles from the one where they’d eaten last time.
Ellicott City was an old mill town with a commercial area that hadn’t changed much in two hundred years because there was nowhere to expand. The antique buildings on either side of Main Street hugged the sides of a rocky ravine. Capitalizing on that disadvantage, the town had long ago transformed itself into a quaint shopping and restaurant area.
“I’ve passed it and wanted to go in.”
“The food is good, and the prices aren’t high.”
She leaned back, ordering herself to relax as she slid her eyes toward Jack, watching him put the car into gear and head down the driveway.
It was amazing to be sitting so close to him again. Amazing that they had this time together. In fact, she felt like every second was a gift from God.
The interior of the car was filled with his scent, so dear and familiar to her. She watched his strong hands as they clasped the wheel, somehow keeping herself from covering the closer one with her palm. She ached to touch him. Kiss him. Do all the things that she’d thought she’d never do again. Now he was tantalizingly within reach.
Of course, he wasn’t aware of any of her longings. For him, this was their first meeting.
He turned right, out of the development where the lots were supersized and the custom-built houses vied with each other for presence.
They were at the far edge of the county, and she hadn’t thought about the route to Ellicott City until Jack turned onto a major cross-county road.
Route 108.
Familiar scenery sped past. She tried to place it, then drew in a quick breath.
“Sorry, I guess I’m going too fast,” Jack said, completely misinterpreting her reaction.
“You’re fine,” she managed to say, but her mind was racing and her chest felt like it was being constricted by heavy bands.
She knew exactly where she was. This was the stretch of highway where she’d slid down the long hill in the snow. Where she’d hit the pickup truck and…what?
She couldn’t say for sure what had really happened. Would it happen again? Now?
Was this what fate had in store for her? A cruel joke? A few minutes with the man she loved—then blackness.
“No,” she whispered.
Reacting to the alarm in her voice, Jack looked toward her, just as a car rounded the curve ahead, passing another vehicle illegally and coming straight at them.
Chapter Three
Sara grabbed the handhold above the door.
“Watch out.”
Jack swore under his breath, his attention snapping back to the road as he yanked the wheel, moving them to the right so that he hugged the edge of their lane. When the car remained on their side of the road, he honked the horn and muttered, “What is that fool doing?”
Slowing their speed, he bumped onto the shoulder. Sara wanted to close her eyes. Instead she couldn’t take her gaze from the other car. Leaping back to its own side of the road, it passed them with inches to spare, but Jack was already too close to the edge of the shoulder.
The right-hand wheels were skimming the margin of the gravel now, and he was having trouble steering.
Looking to the right, Sara saw a steep hill with a creek at the bottom.
Her heart was in her throat as she braced for the long slide down. Like last time, but different. Beside her, Jack was still fighting to avoid disaster, slowing their speed and struggling to stay off the hill. Somehow he managed to keep the vehicle mostly on the shoulder. When he had enough traction, he swung back onto the center of the shoulder and stopped the car.
She gave him a grateful look. “Thank goodness. You’re a heck of a driver.”
“You mean good or bad?”
She felt a nervous laugh bubbling inside her. “Good, of course.”
Swiveling around, she looked behind her. If I’d been driving, we’d be down there in the creek.
He was the only thing that had saved them this time. Last time she’d been here, she’d been alone.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, as he pulled back onto the road.
“How was that your fault?”
“I distracted you,” she said, thinking that one of the questions circling in her mind had just been answered. Everything wasn’t happening exactly as it had the last time. The first time around, there had been no near accident on the way to dinner.
Was that a bad sign? Or was it actually good? What if nobody was after Jack now?
She wanted that to be true, so much, but she couldn’t count on it. Not when whoever was trying to kill him before had been so totally relentless.
Tempting as it was to relax her guard and just enjoy being with Jack, that wasn’t a smart idea.
She glanced at him and saw his brow wrinkle. “That’s right. You gasped. Just before that guy rounded the corner. But you couldn’t see him coming, could you?”
“No.” She scrambled for an explanation and came up with something plausible. “A woman I knew had an accident here. She was killed.” Saying it out loud sent a shiver through her. But it was the truth. Well, not the friend part. Sara Carter had been killed here. Or would be killed, unless she could change her fate—and Jack’s.
“That’s rough. When did it happen?”
“Last winter.” She swallowed. “I knew her pretty well.”
“And seeing the spot where she died brought it back.”
“Apparently. But I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“I understand.”
“Because guys you knew in Afghanistan were killed?”
He stiffened. “How do you know I was in Afghanistan?”
“You’re a war hero.”
“I’m no hero,” he said in a hard voice.
She wanted to tell him that she knew otherwise.
