A Cold Night for Alligators by Viggy Parr Hampton

Author:Viggy Parr Hampton [Hampton, Viggy Parr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victoria Hampton
Published: 2024-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter TWENTY-SIX

Sam was scrolling through emails on her phone as she and Lucas walked from the hotel lobby toward his Jeep, appearing engrossed to discourage him from starting a conversation. Her personal email held few messages of interest—discount codes for cheap tennis shoes, new sales at Bed Bath and Beyond, a few irrelevant Notes to Alumni from her alma mater. She swiped to delete them all, then switched over to her work inbox.

That was a different story. She was inundated with status reports for various projects, data sets to review, analyses from student researchers, and the other administrative minutiae that demanded so much of her attention that she rarely got to do much actual work these days. Scrolling, she read the subject lines of each, just to make sure nothing was so urgent she needed to delay their departure—such as a response from Gruber. No dice. Satisfied she wasn’t neglecting any urgent tasks, she popped her phone back in her pocket.

The car beeped as Lucas hit the unlock button on his key fob, and he pulled Sam’s door open for her in a studied imitation of chivalry. When they were both settled in the car, he gave her a toothy grin that turned her stomach.

His finger stabbed the ignition button, but the Jeep remained silent.

“Uh oh,” he said, frowning.

“What is it?” Sam asked.

“Umm…I’m really no expert with cars, but I know enough to say this baby isn’t purring like she should.”

“Yikes,” Sam said. Maybe they wouldn’t have to go to Gullywasher’s after all?

He stabbed the button again. The result was the same: nothing.

“Shit,” he murmured. “I think we’re out of luck.”

“Too bad,” Sam said softly. “No theme park today, I guess.” She tried to hide her elation; she felt as though a deity had swooped down to save her.

That deity clearly had other plans, though. Lucas scrunched his mouth to one side of his face and said, “Well, there’s really no reason we still can’t go through with that. I’ll need to get this car fixed before we can leave Savannah, anyway. Why don’t I just call Triple A, and we can get an Uber to take us to Gullywasher’s? It’ll be better than sitting around in a mechanic’s shop, waiting for what I’m expecting will be a hefty price tag to fix this baby up.”

“I think it would be prudent for us to head over to the hospital—“

“Oh, live a little, Clements! A cab is probably better anyway to get to Gullywasher’s. Then we don’t have to worry about parking. I’ll call Triple A—we’ll see what the time estimate is for them to get here, hopefully it’s quick—then we can call an Uber. We’ll probably still get there before it even opens.”

“I really don’t know—”

“Well, I do. It’s the best course of action, and we’re taking it!” Lucas said with finality. Clearly, once again, he wouldn’t be swayed, and he was pushing so hard that any further objection on her part would just be awkward.

“I’m going in search of

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