Storm Watch

He downshifted to merge onto the main highway above town. “Keeping out of the low areas.” There were no other cars on the road that they could see, which was just as well, as every time he turned, the rear-end of the Jeep fishtailed. He kept his focus straight forward, his body seemingly relaxed, but she knew it was taking all his concentration to keep them on the road.

“According to Dustin,” he said. “Main Street is a water slide. The Jeep might be able to plow through.”

Or might not.

He didn’t say it, he didn’t need to.

“A foot of floodwater will float most vehicles. Two will plain and simple just carry us away. I don’t know how much water we’re dealing with right now, but it’s clearly rising. We’ll go the long way around, get on the highway and come in from the other side. It’s an extra two miles, but on higher ground.”

Okay, smart move. “Thank you.”

He flicked her a glance. “Are you going to thank me every step of the way?”

“Maybe.”

His lips twitched as he drove down the highway at ten miles per hour instead of the speed limit of sixty-five miles per hour. Still, the water shot up from beneath the tires in two matching plumes along either side of the vehicle. Lizzy leaned forward as if that would help her see better. It didn’t. She had no idea how he could tell where they were going. “Maybe you’ll be thanking me for something by the end of the day.”

“Yeah?” He looked amused. “Like what?”

Well, he had her there.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said after a minute. “Maybe you’ll save my sorry ass again, like you did with the window. Or better yet, tell me what the hell to do with my sorry ass.” He offered a self-deprecatory smile, letting her in on the joke, and a reluctant one tugged at her mouth, as well. “Look at that,” he murmured. “That smile sure looks good on you.”

“I smile plenty.” Okay, maybe not plenty. “When it’s warranted.”

“Yeah, see, the thing about smiling is that it’s supposed to happen whenever and wherever, not just ‘when warranted.’”

“There are inappropriate times.”

“Like?”

“Like this. This is an inappropriate smile time. It’s a serious situation.”

“There’s always a serious situation.” His smile faded. “It’s what you make of it.”

Wasn’t that the truth. She could see in his eyes, from the sudden haunted hollowness in them, that he was once again speaking from experience. Like her, he’d lost his father young, but unlike her and Cece, he still had great family support. He’d grown up with a sense of responsibility, even giving back with his job. In fact, his job was the ultimate give-back, putting his life on the line for his country. “I think it’s amazing, what you do.”

“No different than you,” he said.

“I’m an R.N. in the emergency room, Jason. We both know I’m a dime a dozen.”

“That’s not true.” He flicked her a glance. “And you don’t really feel that way.”

No. No, she didn’t. In the beginning, she’d resented being a nurse instead of a doctor, but truthfully, she’d come to love her job. It gave her a sense of purpose, a belief that she was here for a reason, and yeah, there’d been times when she’d desperately needed that belief. In the fall, things would change. She’d be going into the unknown. “How do you know what I feel?”

“Let’s see. We’re driving into a storm that we should be running from because someone might or might not need you.”

“It’s not any someone. It’s my sister.”

“Come on. You’d be doing this for a perfect stranger.”

“And you are,” she pointed out. “You’re doing this for a perfect stranger.”

“I’m doing it for you.”

She looked at him and saw the truth. Much as she wanted to think of him as that laid-back kid he’d once been because it helped her keep her distance, she really couldn’t.

Because the man he’d turned into was amazing.

“More flood warnings,” the deejay announced. “Mandatory evacuations for all of Eastside. Head out toward the west, via Highway 1 or 101. The shelters are at Madison Junior High and the Huntington Library.”

“It’s the fires we had this past summer,” Lizzy said. “They destroyed the natural landscape, and now we’ve got too much rain. We’ll be lucky not to get mudslides, as well.”

They’d had mudslides ten years ago, which had washed out dozens of homes. She’d been nineteen at the time, trying to raise Cece, still grieving her parents, and terrified at the devastating destruction the slides had brought.

“Don’t you think Cece’ll head to one of the designated shelters?” Jason asked.

“Yeah.” But the truth was, Cece didn’t do what she was told. She had a little authority problem. Okay, a big authority problem. They were working on that.

“You just want to make sure.”

“Yeah.”

He slid her a look. “So who checks on you?”

“I don’t need checking on.”

“Come on. Everyone does once in a while.”

“Really?” she asked. “Even you?”

“My mom will be calling me even when I’m old and gray. So why aren’t you a doctor, Lizzy?”

“Things came up.”

“Things…like checking on your sister?”

“You’re a funny guy, Jason.”

“I try.” He took the last exit for Santa Rey. Eastside. The road took a natural dip down and the car hydroplaned. “Shit,” he muttered. “Hold on.”

Lizzy bit her lower lip and gripped the dash as he fought for control and barely found it just as the road curved. The back end of the Jeep fishtailed, then the tires lost their grip.

They went sliding directly toward a grove of trees, one of which had lost several large branches, which were blocking the road.

The brakes didn’t catch.

They spun away from the fallen branches, but Jason swore viciously as the car whipped around toward the trees themselves.

A cold shot of horror skittered down Lizzy’s spine and she heard herself gasp in terror as they flew at the two massive trees, and then-

Jerked to a sudden, neck-snapping stop, with the nose of the Jeep a mere inch from two of the biggest tree trunks she’d ever seen, both of which filled the entire windshield.

5

IN THE SHOCKED SILENCE, with the Jeep still rocking from the sudden stop, Lizzy felt Jason whip toward her, his eyes dark and fiercely protective. “Lizzy.”

“Present,” she whispered, still staring at the big, fat, thick tree trunks. “That was…adrenaline-pumping.”

“Yeah.” He put his hands on her arm and turned her to him.

Oddly enough, her gaze went-inappropriately-to his mouth. She couldn’t help it. “Another inch, and we’d have been kissing those tree trunks.”

He let out a low laugh as his hand traveled up her spine, coaxing her even closer. “We’d have been swallowing them whole.”

She didn’t resist the pressure of his hand, but willingly shifted to him, nearly melting when his fingers swept up and then down again, this time finding their way beneath all the layers she wore.