Read Sierra Hearts (Part One) for Free Online Page B

you joking?! After what just happened?”
Jenn was incredulous.
    He looked at her like she was speaking a different
language.
    “No,” he said. “I’m not joking. Keep talking to me.
Keep me focused. We are stuck here until someone comes driving
along. And if I fall asleep,” he paused. “Don’t let me fall
asleep.”
    Jenn’s mind raced. How was she going to keep him
focused? She racked her brain to come up with something.
    “ How did you end up being a
medic?” she asked.
    “The same way anyone ends up being anything in the
army. I took a test and the test said I was a good candidate for
medic training,” Danny said. “Believe it or not, you aren’t the
first person I’ve had to pull out of a crashed car.”
    “Did you have to do that in the army?” Jenn
asked.
    “Yes,” he said, flatly. He didn’t elaborate but Jenn
could tell there was a hell of a lot more to it than a simple yes .
    “Did you ever save someone’s life?” she asked.
    “Yes. Yes, I did.” Danny said it the same way that
made Jenn know there was obviously a lot more there, but he wasn’t
going to talk about it. “I’m feeling a little drowsy.”
    Jenn struggled to come up with another question,
pronto. She blurted out as many as she could think of, in any order
she could think of them. She found out that he liked hamburgers
more than hot dogs. He liked chocolate more than vanilla. He loved
movies, but in a shock to her he liked more than just the average
superhero or action thriller. He said he liked comedies and
mysteries, too. He said he liked most types of movies, really. He
even listed some that Jenn would categorize as undeniably rom-com,
but she said nothing. When he had gotten out of the army, had moved
back in with his mom. She liked having him home because he could do
things around the house. He could chop firewood for the stove, or
he could shovel the driveway for her. He had been hanging around
the general store more and more. He liked talking sports with her
dad.
    “Did you like your time in the army?” she asked.
    “What do you mean?” Danny asked.
    “Well, uh, the last time I saw you, you looked so…”
Jenn searched for the right word, “… different . I mean look
at you now!” Jenn gestured with her arm towards him.
    “I was tired of being the scrawny kid,” Danny said.
“But you are one to talk. I remember shy Miss MacKenzie with her
braces. Now you live in LA.”
    Before she could stop herself, Jenn mumbled, “I used
to live in LA. I don’t live there anymore.” She instantly regretted
it.
    “What? What do you mean used to ?” he
asked.
    “I was living with a guy. He… we ended it. So I came
back home for a little while,” she said. She braced herself for
whatever Danny was going to do next.
    “That sucks,” he said. Jenn couldn’t believe it.
    That sucks?
    Danny said it the same way that someone would after
watching someone spill ketchup on their shirt. Was he mocking
her?
    “Guy sounds like an asshole,” he added.
    Despite herself, Jenn laughed. “Yes. He is an
asshole.” Jenn laughed again, taking note of how good it feel to
laugh mere moments away from thinking she was going to die.
    After a while, Danny asked Jenn a question.
    “Do you want to move back to LA?” he asked.
    Jenn wasn’t sure how to respond to that one. She
missed LA. But right now LA meant no job and nowhere to live.
    “I’m not sure,” she finally said.
    They were still sitting in the snow by the wreck of
the Subaru. It didn’t make sense to risk walking along the side of
the road when it was so hard to see. They had already been in one
car accident today, and neither of them wanted to take the chance
on another car hitting them. They hadn’t seen another car go by,
which wasn’t unusual for the small town. But it was starting to get
dark, and with the sun going down, it was going to get colder.
    Jenn could see her breath. She hoped someone would
come along soon. She could feel the frosty air on the tip of