Her eyes lit as she saw the flashlights bouncing toward us, slow at first, but picking up speed.
Then they were both there, holding onto my car.
Tommy went to my window, as the other man with Tommy went to Tallulah’s.
Though, since Tallulah was in the middle seat, he wasn’t technically too close, giving me time to inspect both men.
“H-how?” I whispered, swallowing hard as I breathed deeply for the first time since I went off the road.
“Was behind you,” he murmured. “I’d meant to only make sure you got home okay.”
I didn’t bother to ask why he was behind me.
That wouldn’t be smart.
You didn’t question the motives of your savior…at least not while he was in the process of saving you.
Later, though, you bet your ass I would be asking him why the hell he was following me.
“While we have the car pinned to the trees, reach back there and unbuckle her. Take everything you think you will need.”
I did as ordered, freeing my excited child from the constraints of her car seat.
The second she was free, she started to squirm out of her seat, and I caught her before she could fall to the floor. The moment I had her in my lap, she went right for Tommy.
Tommy grinned, a white flash of teeth in the darkness, and reached for her.
Tallulah went willingly, and I nearly melted into a puddle of goo.
Seeing that man—a real man, unlike any man I’d ever seen before—melt for my baby was just so hot.
I eyed the basket of clothes, and knew for certain they would be too heavy, and reached for the blankets.
“I can tie her to you—it was what I was going to do with myself,” I told him, holding up the blankets.
He took the blanket and looped it over one shoulder, strapping my girl to his chest like he’d done something similar a million times before.
He turned, and the man standing beside him, the one I hadn’t gotten a good look at, tied the two ends in a tight, fat knot.
He turned back around, and I licked my lips at the sight of the man and my daughter.
Illuminated with just the stranger’s flashlight beam, it gave me only a vague outline of what they looked like together, but that was enough to set my hormones on fire.
“Your purse?” he asked.
I nodded and reached for it, looping it around my shoulder before zipping the bag closed.
Then I reached for the diaper bag in the backseat.
Once that was looped over my shoulder, too, I opened the car door.
Or tried to.
The water was holding it closed.
“Give me the bags,” the stranger ordered.
I did, and he looped them around his shoulders.
“There are about twenty diapers in there,” I informed him. “If you drop them, Tallulah will have to pee more than ever tonight, and I most certainly don’t want to deal with that…”
He snorted but said nothing, offering his large hands to me after he handed the flashlight off to Tommy.
I went, and my eyes lit on the man’s vest—no, his cut—that was nearly identical to the one that I’d seen Tommy wear almost every time he wasn’t in his scrubs, and a few times when he was.
The man’s strong hands went under my arms, and he hauled me right through the car window.
“My keys!” I yelled the moment my feet were holding me up.
The water flowed around my legs, but I didn’t care as I reached back into the car for my keys.
Two sets of hands pulled me back, and Tommy barked a curse.
“Fuckin’ hell, Tally,” Tommy ground out, pulling me back.
I shivered when his hand met the bare skin of my belly, and immediately backed away from my car.
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“The car might shift if you lean on it,” he informed me. “And then swing around and take us all out like fuckin’ bowling pins. Let him do it.”
He indicated to the man at his side, and I backed away in acquiescence.
“Sorry,” I muttered, chagrined.
The man at his side—who still hadn’t been named—reached in and grabbed my keys, then turned around and offered them to me.
I shoved them into my jeans pocket.
“Hold on to the rope as you walk,” Tommy ordered.
I did as instructed, holding on to the rope as I made my way toward where I assumed the road was located.
They stayed with me, two strong presences at my sides.
Which was a damn good thing, because my legs were freakin’ burning from going against the flow of water that was carrying away anything in its path downstream.
It was a good thing the men at my sides had realized they would need ropes, because if not for them, I wouldn’t have been able to move forward.
“There’s going to be a ditch right in front of you just before you get to the road. Keep your footing so you don’t go down like this dufus.”
I walked slowly, feeling the exact point where the ground dipped.
I could see how the other man had fallen.
It would’ve been easy.
Though I had two different hands on my elbows keeping me from going down.
I’d just started back up the ditch toward the road when a thought occurred to me.
“Her medicines!” I yelled. “I can’t leave without them!”
When I went to turn around, two strong arms that most certainly did not belong to Tommy surrounded me, and pulled me back into the body that belonged to those arms.
“Keep walking,” he ordered. “I’ll go back and get them.”
I did after telling him where to look, stopping only when I was sure I was on the solid ground of the road.
Once he was confident that I had my footing, he turned and headed back to my truck, leaving me with Tommy and a very excited Tallulah.
My legs were burning, and I felt sorry for forgetting the meds. The man had to have been tired. This was his third trip.
We both watched in silence as the flashlight bobbed back to my SUV, and that’s when I realized I’d left my lights on.
At this point, though, I was beyond caring.
“The power's out,” I said, watching as the man made his way back to my car.
“Yep,” Tommy confirmed, reaching into the makeshift baby carrier and extracting Tallulah from the confinement.
Once she was free, I held my hands out, and he handed her to me without a word.
I pressed a kiss to her forehead and closed my eyes as I breathed out a deep sigh of relief.
It took the man five long minutes to get back to us, but when he did he had Tallulah’s bag of medicines clutched to his chest along with all of my other bags.
The moment the man was back safely on the pavement next to us, all rational thought ceased to exist in my brain, and I burst into tears.
“I just got a full tank of gas!” I wailed.
The man that was next to Tommy started to chuckle under his breath while he dropped down to his knees in exhaustion.
“You are a fuckin’ nut,” the man gasped, looking up at the sky before he started laughing full out.
I couldn’t help it.
I laughed, too.
Tommy threw his arm around me, and then started walking me toward his bike.
“We’re a minute and a half from the place where I’m staying,” he informed me. “We’ll head there.”
I blinked.
“On a bike?” I asked. “But Tallulah needs a car seat…and you most definitely don’t have one on that thing.”