Cup of Sugar Read Free Page A

bumper. He spotted an opening among the stopped vehicles and went for it. Emergency vehicles with flashers engaged waited on the other side of the mess. Police cruisers, a tow truck and an ambulance. A cop waving those handheld flare sticks directed them to one side, where they came to a safe stop.
    “Are you okay?”
    She nodded while sliding back to her seat.
    With that assurance, his temperature shot up by double digits. “Jesus, Nia. You could’ve broken your arm doing that. Or a hell of a lot worse.” An officer tapped on his window, but Conn ignored him. “What the hell were you thinking?”
    “I was thinking of Zeus. And you. How much you’d hate me if he got hurt because you had to make this stupid drive.”
    Shit. He exhaled until his lungs were empty, drew a deep breath and shook his head. “Sorry.”
    “It’s okay.”
    It wasn’t. But he’d make it up to her.
    The cop rapped on the glass again. Frigid air filled the truck as Conn lowered the window. In his peripheral vision, he saw Nia hug herself against the cold. He wanted to do that. That and a lot more.
    “You folks all right in here?” the officer asked. “You were lucky to get through that pileup in one piece.”
    Pileup? Conn turned to look at the road behind them. Holy shit. At least half a dozen vehicles jammed tightly together in varying skewed positions. Forget lucky , they’d been given a damn miracle.
    The image of Nia’s head pitching forward replayed in his mind. “We got bumped back there. Nothing that’d do much damage to the truck, but it gave Nia quite a jolt.”
    The cop nodded. “Pull ahead to a safe distance and I’ll have an EMT come over.”
    “No, I’m fine.” Nia met Conn’s eyes when he turned to stare her down. “I swear, I’m fine. I just want to get out of here.”
    “You sure, ma’am? If your husband says the impact jarred you that badly, you should let a medic take a look at you.”
    The truck got noticeably warmer then, despite the frosty air that’d filled the cabin. Of course the cop assumed they were married. Why else would a man, a woman and a dog be traveling in shit weather, late on New Year’s Eve?
    Conn allowed the grin to settle into place as he looked at his pretty wife . “You tell me, sweetheart. You want a paramedic to check you out, or do you think a hot shower and a nice massage later will do the trick?”
    “I don’t need a paramedic.” Nia’s soft voice wove its way through him. She hadn’t answered the second half of his question.
    Yet.
    “Okay.” He turned to the officer at the window. “I guess we’re good to keep going.”
    “Wherever you’re headed, you’ll have to find an alternate route. Two more accidents ahead on the 115, so we’ve closed it down. You have GPS in here, right?”
    “You bet.”
    The cop nodded again. “Then slowly make your way to the next exit and have a safe night.”
    “Thanks, officer. We’ll do that.”
    * * * * *
    Subzero air rushed in when Conn opened both doors on the driver’s side of the truck. Nia shivered as he and Zeus resumed their respective spots. It had to be ten degrees colder than when they’d set out from home. She glanced at the screen in the truck’s dashboard—the “command center,” as Conn referred to it. Quite affectionately, in fact.
    She was right about the temperature. But that was the least of their concerns. “Conn…something weird just happened to the navigation system.”
    He looked up from clicking his seatbelt into place. “What the hell?”
    In front of them, the display flashed random red lines. Then the map went dark.
    “Has that ever happened before?”
    “No. Never.” He smacked the dash with his palm, a man solution that yielded no results. “Shit.”
    “Try restarting the truck, maybe that’ll reboot the system or something.”
    “Good idea.”
    “I have them from time to time. Don’t let the blonde hair fool you.”
    He chuckled while turning the key. Amazing that after only four