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Hana blinked and the deer seemed to come out of thin air. The lithe body of a doe darted out into the two-lane road quick as lightning. She paused just long enough for Hana’s headlights to flash in her eyes. Hana gasped and jerked the steering wheel to the right and then left again to overcompensate. She realized her mistake when the dark landscape tilted and smeared across her vision in a blur of snow-dusted forest, clouded sky, and a long strip of yellow road paint. Hana squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them next, her truck was pointing downward into the ditch that stretched all the way back to the highway she’d come from. Her headlights flickered before returning to full brightness.
“Rerouting…” The voice from her phone’s GPS app broke the silence. Hana sucked in a trembling breath and her grip on the steering wheel tightened uselessly. “Rerouting…”
“Yeah, thanks,” Hana whispered. Her breath puffed from her lips in a cloud. The heater was no longer blasting and the temperature in the cab had dropped quickly.
“Rerouting…”
“Okay, okay!” She snatched the phone from the console and closed the app. “I get it. We’re off course… damn it.”
Hana tapped the screen with her thumb anxiously. Her thoughts were still spinning out on the road above her and she had trouble catching up. She had only thirty percent battery left – which meant she needed to choose her calls wisely. Should she phone her new employers who might rethink their decision if she admitted to not giving the road and weather her complete attention? In her defense, she was new to the region and relied heavily on GPS! Not that those circumstances would matter to the parents of two little girls still young enough for car seats.
Her eyes focused on the tree line across from her downward view of the ditch. Should she instead try and find someone willing to provide wrecker service on a rural road after dark? Hana groaned and sighed loudly. The wait would be well over an hour and her phone would die before anyone arrived, leaving her with no opportunity for a Plan B. Staying all night in her truck seemed not only ludicrous but unsafe on all fronts.
“Time to probably lose my job before I even start,” she muttered, scrolling through her contacts list.
A loud knock on the window startled her so thoroughly she fumbled her phone. It slipped between her knees and fell to the floorboard of the truck.
“Hey, you okay?” The voice on the other side of the glass asked. Hana could do nothing but blink and stare in surprise. “Hey!”
“Uh –” Hana reached for the armrest buttons and locked and unlocked the doors twice before punching the right one. Cold air swirled into the already chilled cab. “Hi.”
“Are you alright?” His face was halfway covered by a scarf. “I saw your lights backend up from the road.”
“Yeah there was a, uh –” Hana peeked out of the window at the muddy slope.
“A what?”
“A deer.” She shivered and shrunk back into the cab. “There was a deer in the road and I swerved.” An old habit pressed against her tongue and she couldn’t fight off the impulse. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” His voice sounded as if there was a grin behind the scarf. “Are you okay? No bumps or scrapes? Concussions are serious business.”
“No, I didn’t hit my head.” Hana impulsively tapped the door lock button again.
“Let’s get you out of there.” The man tugged on the door handle three times before Hana heard him mumbling in frustration. “I think the brush is jamming the door shut. I hope you’re good to crawl out the window.”
“I guess so…” Hana unclipped her seatbelt and glanced over her shoulder at the mound of boxes and bins still tied down in the bed of her truck. The contents of her entire life had been carefully packed away a week before and she hadn’t even considered what would happen to them in any rescue scenario.
The man’s eyes followed hers. “There’s maybe five homes on this whole stretch of road. Your stuff will probably be fine but we can grab the most important boxes if you want.”
“I’m sorry.” Hana focused on pulling her knit hat down over her ears and zipping her coat instead of the frustrated tears that stung her eyes.
“Hey,” his voice was soft and when she looked back up, he’d pulled the scarf down from his face. “You gotta stop apologizing. This happens a lot.”
“Yeah, okay.” Hana retrieved her phone before shifting in her seat. She sucked in a deep breath as she prepared herself to crawl through the window and into the arms of a stranger.
“Hold on.” He pointed at the dash that still glowed. “Make sure you grab your keys. You don’t want to come back to a dead battery in the morning.”
Hana flushed and pulled the key from the ignition. She stuffed the set into her pocket, along with her phone, and grabbed her bag. Anxiety twisted in her stomach when she twisted to fully face the window.
“So do I just…” Hana placed her hands on the edge of the open window and leaned out to try and see the ground. Everything was dark except for the reflector strips on the edge of the man’s coat.
“Yep. Just ease out head first and I’ll catch you.” He laughed before holding his arms wide. “It’s easier the other way around but the cab of this truck is tiny. Plus –” Hana found his smile embarrassingly easy to look at. “It’s kinda cold.”
“Right.”
Hana planted her feet on the driver’s seat and lifted herself out of the window. Her bare fingers dug into the gap between the closed door and the body of her truck. She couldn’t quite process the painful chill of the metal because the ground was invisible. Part of her wondered if taking help from a strange man who wasn’t a police officer or a tow-truck driver was a good idea but she decided to take the risk instead of freezing to death. Her bag’s zipper scraped against the edge of the window frame as she balanced on the door.
“Okay, just –”
Hana’s grip suddenly slipped and she tumbled backwards. She tried not to think of the tangle of brush she knew was keeping the door tightly shut and whether or not they were brambles that would tear right through her leggings. Her fall ended abruptly when she collided with a solid body.
“You took that a little fast.”
“I’m –”
“Don’t say you’re sorry.” His laugh reverberated through the back of her coat.
“I thought I had a good hold on the door.”
“The cold can numb your fingers real quick.” Her boots hit the ground and the brush lining the slope of the ditch poked at her legs. “Do you have gloves?”
“Yeah, they’re in my bag.” Hana fumbled the zipper twice before she was able to reach inside. Her hands shook with cold.
“Here.” The man handed over a pair of cold-weather work gloves. They were warmer than anything in her bag but Hana’s fingers still hurt. “Let’s get moving. It’s snowing again.”
Hana spent only a few minutes picking through the bed of her truck. Most of her bins and boxes were secured tightly under a tarp and rope. In the end she recovered only her travel bags.
“Are you sure this’ll be okay overnight?” She asked, handing off the last bag and retightening the ropes.
“Yeah, I doubt anyone’ll even see it. The weather is the worst that can happen to it.”
Hana hopped from the bed of the truck and yelped as the curl of a dead branch snagged her leggings. The man laughed and shouldered the strap of the heaviest bag.
“Fashion over function, huh?”
Hana scowled in the darkness. “I wasn’t expecting it to matter.”
“Well, lesson one: always assume it’ll matter.” He jerked his chin over his shoulder. “The slope is steep and a little muddy. Just follow me.”
Halfway up the slope, Hana decided steep and a little muddy was an understatement at best. Her boots weren’t made for the snow or hiking. The soles slid on the mud and, in a moment of panic, her hand shot out to grasp at the man’s coat sleeve.
“You good?” He asked over his shoulder.
“Yeah.” Hana didn’t release his sleeve until they reached the pavement. Her legs felt like jello and the headlights of his truck were blinding. Flecks of snow danced in the illuminated air.
His truck was easily twice the size of hers. The bed was crowded with equipment she didn’t recognize and she wondered how her bags would fare uncovered in the snow. Luckily she didn’t have to think on it for too long. Hana followed him around the side of his truck and exhaled in relief when he pulled open a door revealing the extended cab.
“Back here is fine.” He took her bags and slid them easily into the small space. “Hop in.”
Hana circled back around the truck and pulled open the passenger door. She had to climb up into the cab but the warm air kissing her freezing cheeks was worth the effort of it all. The cab smelled of pine air freshener and her eyes slid shut.
“You’re not passing out on me are you?” He brought with him a gust of cold air that quickly disappeared when he closed the door.
“No, I’m just relieved. I think I was about to panic before you scared the hell out of me pounding on the window.”
He smiled and she couldn’t help but return it. “Sorry,” he said, adjusting the heater vents.
“Apologizing is my thing… uh… I don’t even know your name.”
“Well.” He pulled off his gloves and deposited them in the center console. “To my mother, it’s Benny. To everyone else, just Ben is fine.”
“Okay then, Just Ben, I really appreciate your help.”
“It’s not a problem, Deer Girl.”
“Hana,” she corrected, stuffing her loaner gloves into the console next to his. “One N.”
“Just one N? Is there a fascinating back story to that singular N or were your parents just being creative?”
“My parents are hippies. I’m sure they had a reason but I never asked because it seemed like a rabbit hole.”
“Alright, Hana with just the one N, where to? There’s a motel but that’s about an hour back into town.”
“Actually –” Hana pulled her phone from her coat pocket and brought up her new employer’s address card. “I’m headed here.”
Ben glanced at the face of her phone and raised an eyebrow. “Family?”
“No, work. I’m the new nanny.”
Ben cleared his throat awkwardly before laughing. Hana frowned.
“What’s so funny?”
“Absolutely nothing,” he said, reaching for his seatbelt. Hana followed suit but her frown remained.
“Obviously something made you laugh.”
“It’s just that –” He sighed and shifted the truck into drive. Slowly he pulled away from the shoulder and back onto the road. “You’re like, nanny number three in the last year. I don’t know how they keep finding new ones. Is there like a giant club full of nannies somewhere?”
“It’s called an agency.” Hana tried not to cringe. “But I don’t have one of those. I answered a personal ad.”
Ben laughed again. “I didn’t know that kind of thing still existed.”
Hana sighed irritably. “They do. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get fired immediately for swerving off the road and into a ditch the night before I’m supposed to start work.”
“Nah, it’ll be fine. I’ll smooth it over.”
“You’ll smooth it over? What’s that even mean? Do you know them or something? I’m a stranger to you.”
“I think you’ll figure out real quick, Deer Girl, that this is a small town. Everybody knows everybody. Don’t worry about it. They’ll take my word for it. Just promise me you’re not a drunk or whatever and it’s fine.”
“I’m not a drunk,” Hana said flatly. “You don’t have to do that. I can handle Mister Hobbs. I’d rather be honest and get canned right out the gate than have it come out later.”
“Look, Hana with one N, you don’t get it. They won’t fire you. The Hobbs kids are something else. Like I said, they’ve had three nannies in the last year that I know of. This’ll be cake for me.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m a nice guy?”
Hana scowled. “How do I know you aren’t escorting me to your Silence of the Lambs basement right now.”
“Come on, you’re smarter than that. You’ve got GPS on your phone.” He smiled again and her scowl deepened in annoyance. “It’s real bad luck you went into that ditch but it’s less awful than hitting a deer. Trust me on that. Let me smooth it over with Hobbs and we’ll just say you owe me one.”
“I’m not doing you weird favors.” His laughter disrupted her frustration and she sighed. “I’m sorry for being difficult. I do appreciate your help out of the ditch and with Mister Hobbs.”
“He’s a good guy. He won’t be mad and I’m telling you this is common.”
“So you’re always doing this?”
“What?”
“Swooping in and yanking girls out of cars? Is your coat hiding your hero cape?”
“Everybody needs a hobby.” Ben slowed the truck to a crawl and turned onto an even darker stretch of unpaved road. There was one light at the far end that was nothing but a pool of yellow.
“Why is everything so dark here?” Hana complained.
“Welcome to the wilderness. It’s not always this dark. Usually when it snows, it’s brighter.”
Once they passed the dim yellow light, Hana could see the shape of the Hobbs house. Only two windows were lit.
“I hope I’m not disturbing them. I should’ve called.”
“You worry too much. Look.”
Hana followed Ben’s pointed finger and saw a silhouette in the front window. He circled the driveway and parked at the foot of the stairs leading to the covered porch.
“I’ll swing by tomorrow to help you with your truck. My buddy has a wrecker and he’ll pull it out, no big deal.”
“Will this be two favors then?”
“Nah. It’s buy one get one free night.”
Hana’s hand gripped the handle and she braced herself for the cold. “Thank you again. I can’t believe I got so lucky.”
“You flirting with me, Hana with one N?”
“No, you ass. I just meant I’m lucky you’re not a serial killer rapist.”
“Let me see your phone.”
“Excuse me?”
Ben pointed at the phone in her hand. “Your phone. So I can text you tomorrow. About your truck.” When she hesitated, he laughed. “Come on, I’ve delivered you safely without any kidnapping or murder. I even caught you when you came flying out of that window earlier.”
“I guess.”
The front door of the house opened and light spilled across the planks of the porch. Hana gave him her phone and blushed furiously at the ridiculous number of pink hearts he texted himself with it.
“I’ll see you tomorrow Hana.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
She pushed open the door and found him waiting on the other side of his truck with her bags in hand. Ben said nothing when he helped her sling the larger bag’s strap over her shoulder. He didn’t pull away until Mister Hobbs welcomed her into the house.
The next morning Hana woke to a series of multi-colored hearts and car emojis. She wasn’t sure if she was more annoyed with Ben himself or the fact that she wasn’t annoyed as she thought she should’ve been.