Storm Watch Read online

“Listen,” his sister said quickly. “Whoever you are, promise you’ll at least feed him. That you’ll—”

  Jason gently relieved Lizzy of the phone. “Shelly. It’s sort of a bad time. Can I call you back?” He listened to what sounded like a long litany and rubbed a spot between his eyes. “Well, I am fine.”

  Lizzy had been looking at him all day, and yeah, no doubt he was incredibly fine, but she could see beneath the surface now, past the rugged face and body which tended to rob her of cognitive thought, and she agreed with his sister.

  Beneath the easy, calm, I-can-handle-anything air he wore, there was that edge she’d already seen, that haunted hollowness she now understood. And added to both was a sheer exhaustion that probably went to the bone. As she’d worked all night, he wasn’t alone in that, but Jason was more than just physically tired, and her heart ached for him.

  “I promise,” Jason said in the affectionate but frustrated voice that was a universal sibling-to-sibling tone. “I’ll come see you and Mom the second the storm’s over and I’m free.” He looked at Lizzy. “I’ll invite her, yes, but the decision is hers.” A reluctant, fond smile curved his lips. “Yeah, you, too, brat. Bye.”

  “They love you,” Lizzy said softly into the silence.

  Well, not silence. There was no silence, not with the whipping wind and rain hammering the poor Jeep.

  “They love me,” Jason agreed, craning his neck to look around them. “But love isn’t going to get us out of this mess.”

  Water was rushing and running beneath the Jeep’s tires, the force of the storm rocking them back and forth. No. Love wasn’t going to help them. “I’m sorry. I can’t believe I took us out in this.”

  “Don’t be.”

  She knew Cece was capable, dammit, she knew. But a small part of her couldn’t help but try to be there, just in case Cece still needed her.

  Hell, maybe even a small part of her wanted Cece to still need her. “Aren’t you glad you came home for some food and rest?” she asked drily. “And…what else was it you wanted?”

  His eyes heated, and her breath caught. “Oh, that’s right,” she murmured. “Sex. You wanted sex.” At just the words out of her own mouth, something deep inside her belly quivered. She peered out the window toward where she knew the power lines were. “And I nearly gave you electrocution. Man, did you get ripped off.”

  “Guess that means you owe me.”

  She turned back with amusement. “Is that right?”

  He just smiled.

  “Are you really suggesting I owe you sex?”

  He arched a brow. “Is that on the table?”

  “No. I was just wondering.”

  He laughed. “God.” He swiped a hand down his face. “Somehow, even in the middle of hell, you can still make me laugh.”

  Lizzy took in his smile, and how good it looked on him, and smiled, too. “I really like this whole not being in awe of you thing.”

  “Well, damn. I am going to miss the awe.”

  Now she laughed. “Are you ready then?”

  “For the sex?” he asked hopefully.

  “Ha. No, but nice try.” She grabbed her bag and tossed him his. “I assume we have to walk from here.”

  “There’s no way to get the Jeep past the wires.”

  “Okay.” She looked at her watch. Past noon already. Unbelievable.

  “Wait,” he said when she reached for the door handle. Leaning in, he pulled up her hood, his fingers warm and callused, the touch going right through all her protective layers and her inner brick wall, making itself at home right in the center of her heart.

  “That’s not going to help for long,” she told him, her voice a little husky.

  He kept his fingers on her, and lightly stroked her jaw. “Stay close. There’ll be underwater currents, and if your feet get swept from under you—”

  “I’ll be okay. I will,” she said with soft steel when he started to speak again.

  “I know.” He looked at her, then hauled her to him and kissed her hard and long, with a promise of more to come. Then, still breathing hard, they opened their doors and headed out, meeting at the back of the vehicle. Jason grabbed her hand, and together they trudged for higher ground, with Lizzy hoping that Cece—in labor or not—had done the same.

  7

  DOUBLE FISTING her flashlight, Cece waddled down the flight of stairs to the single-car garage beneath her condo unit, where she made the unhappy realization that the entire place had sprung a leak.

  There was four inches of water swirling at her feet.

  Which was perfect, really, because now it was official. The day had gone to hell in a handbasket.

  She surveyed her car, which was as useless as her phone, because the garage door was shut and she had no electricity to open it. In the corner, soaking up water, was a bag of skinny clothes, also useless.

  And the raft from last summer’s river trip…

  No.

  She couldn’t.

  For a moment, she stood there in indecision—never a good state for her because being indecisive made her do things without thinking.

  Stupid things.

  Like having sex without a condom.

  Way late to rue that decision, she reminded herself. Besides, she was getting a present out of the deal, the best present she’d ever had; she rubbed her belly. “Don’t you worry, baby. You really are the best thing to ever happen to me.”

  In response, her stomach banded tightly.

  Another contraction.

  “Oh, God.” She clutched the hood of her car for balance and breathed through it. Then when it passed, she waddled past the car, knowing there was a manual lever somewhere, which would allow her to open the garage door by hand. She was going to have to risk her bad tires, and drive herself to the hospital.

  To reach the lever she had to stand on the bucket of Pretty-In-Pink paint she’d bought on sale last week. She didn’t know if she was having a boy or girl, she’d refused to peek, but she was all for hoping. Buying the paint ahead of time was one thing—it’d been half off, and a deal she couldn’t pass up. But actually painting the walls with the pink had seemed a little bit like taunting that bitch Karma. So she’d waited.

  And now she was tempting Karma anyway. Gritting her teeth, she managed to climb up onto the bucket. Barely reaching the lever, she pulled. It was much harder than she expected, and she had to tug with all her might. As the garage door slowly lifted, she lumbered down off the bucket for better leverage, sweating in spite of the chilly wind and rain flying through the opening as it widened.

  And that wasn’t the only thing she could see as the door slowly rose.

  She saw a pair of kick-ass motorcycle boots, topped by long, leanly muscled legs inside a set of jeans faded in all the stress points.

  So not Lizzy.

  As she gasped and backed up a step, another contraction hit, and her last thought as she sank to the ground was shit. Her worst nightmare was coming true—she was going to have this baby in front of a perfect stranger, and a bad boy to boot.

  Just her luck.

  JASON AND LIZZY SLOGGED their way along the streets toward Eastside. For now they were above the worst of the flooding, but she knew that at some point within the next half mile they’d have to turn and cut across the roads, heading down into the areas quickly filling up with runoff water from the hills.

  They’d had to stop twice. Once to help a guy climb over a huge fallen pine tree to get out of his driveway, another to help two college students—one of whom had broken his leg—get back to the roadblock to where Sam and Eddie were.

  Lizzy took a glance at Jason. In profile, with his hood up, backpack on, face set, he looked like a soldier. Unreadable. Impenetrable.

  Unapproachable.

  And yet he’d kissed her. Touched her. Talked to her.

  He hadn’t been unapproachable then, not when they’d opened up to each other, and not when she’d been in his lap, straddling him, his hands all over her.