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said. “Computers are like cars. They should just work. No one wants to know how.”
    For the remainder of the drive to Houston, they argued playfully about the differences between men and women, and about who had the wherewithal to get to Seattle first.
    As they entered the outskirts of Houston, rain began to fall. By the time they made their way across town to Houston’s Intercontinental Airport, the rain had turned into a deluge. “You don’t think this rain will delay flights even more, do you?” Kate asked, peering up at the sky as they dropped the rental car off.
    “No, not at all,” Joe said with a roll of his eyes. He grabbed Kate’s bags.
    “You don’t have to do that,” she said.
    “I know,” he said with a wink. “Come on, get that pink life raft and let’s go find a flight out of here.”
    They crowded onto the shuttle, Kate with the garment bag on her back, Joe with her shoulder bag slung over his shoulder and cases in each hand. They ignored the looks of everyone who eyed her pink bag with disdain, then piled into the terminal with everyone else.
    And into pandemonium.
    “What the hell?” Joe said absently as they looked around.
    A man standing just in front of them turned around. “The air traffic controllers just went on strike,” he said.

Chapter 5
    “We have to get that car back,” Kate said instantly, crowding into Joe’s side as a melee of angry, disgruntled passengers pushed and shoved toward the ticket counters. Joe couldn’t help himself; he put a protective arm around Kate.
    “We know what’s going to happen,” she said frantically. “Once they figure out they can’t fly out, they will try and drive out, like us.” She suddenly twisted into Joe’s chest and grabbed his lapel, her green eyes wild. “We have to go .”
    “We can’t drive out of this,” Joe said, putting a hand on her arm. “It’s at least a two-day drive in the best of weather, and we’d be driving into a blizzard.”
    Kate’s grip tightened. “I think I am going to pass out.”
    “No, you’re not,” he evenly assured her, and gave her a comforting squeeze on the arm. “What about a train?”
    “Train?”
    “Yes, train,” Joe said again, and gently peeled free the fingers clawed around his lapel so he could reach his cell phone. “If we can just get farther west, we have more options for getting to Seattle.” At least he hoped that was true. He googled the Amtrak schedules and squinted at the screen. “Okay, we can book a ticket right now, leaving in a couple of hours, and arriving in Phoenix at 6:30 tomorrow night.”
    “Tomorrow!” Kate exclaimed, and did a dramatic little backward bend. “But that’s the dress rehearsal! I’ll miss the dress rehearsal, and I bought a gorgeous new dress to counter the peach thing!”
    Joe looked up from his phone. “Do you know any other way to get there?”
    Kate sighed with resignation. She looked down and shook her head. Tendrils of hair shook loose from the knot she’d tied in her hair earlier, and Joe had an insanely stupid urge to touch them, brush them back behind her ear.
    “Listen, the important thing is that you get there in time for the wedding, right? And for me, Monday morning. I have to be there by Monday.” He googled the location of the train station, then looked at Kate. “Should I buy the tickets?”
    “ Yes ,” she said, and punched him lightly in the chest for emphasis.
    As it turned out, getting the tickets was the easy part. Getting across town looked impossible. The taxi stands were swimming with humans trying to leave the airport.
    After twenty minutes of waiting, Joe was getting a little panicky himself. He’d been to Houston only a couple of times, but what he remembered was that it was huge and sprawling. He imagined that sprawl would seem to double in a rainstorm. “If we can’t get in a cab soon, we won’t make it,” he said grimly.
    “We’re going to make it,” Kate said, her determination returned.
    “I