“You say that now, but what about…”
I lean over, pressing my mouth against hers, feeling both her hands come up to my face, stroking me and squeezing me.
“If anything, Tess, I should be the one who’s worried,” I tell her softly, smiling.
“Why? What do you mean?” she asks.
“Look at me!” I exclaim, “I’m so old… I must be twice your age, old enough to be your father.”
“That’s got nothing to do with it, Sean. Age is just a number.” She protests, and I know I’ve proved my point.
“And so is weight. Just a number, and that’s not what I count or think of or even consider when I look at you, Tess. I see the woman I wanted and claimed for my own. I see my woman, nothing less and nothing more.”
“I just wish I was different… thinner for you,” she continues, making me screw my face up.
“I love your body Tessa. If you were skinny or taller than me, shorter or had three heads and an extra thumb, I’d still love you. I’d still want to do this to you.” I tell her.
“Do what?”
I lean in and kiss her again. A slow, easy kiss that feels as good, if not better than the very first time I kissed her not so long ago.
“I’ll always love you Tess, no matter what and you’ll always do it for me. Now, can we go? There’s a giant tornado coming.”
She smiles and nods, sighing some and drying her eyes before snuggling up into my jacket some more, looking totally satisfied for someone who’s trying to outrun a catastrophic weather event.
In the rear view, I can see the first signs of the sky starting to spiral and I just know it’s only a matter of time before a twister touches down. I only hope we can outrun it.
“Sean, look! Over there.” I follow the line of Tessa’s arm as she points across at the horizon line.
“A flare,” I say to myself, registering the direction and the color.
“What does that mean?” Tess asks me, and I shrug.
“I can’t say for sure, but somebody might need help. Sending up a flare with that coming. I think somebody needs help.”
“Shouldn’t we just go, like you said, keep going so we can get out of here?”
Looking back again, I pull out, back onto the highway, picking up speed but keeping to the limit. No point in getting into more trouble than we already are by driving like a lunatic.
Groaning, I flick on my CB radio, something else that was switched off when it should’ve been left on, like my phone and my computer.
There’s plenty of static but then a scratchy, broken signal starts to come through, Tessa and I looking at each other.
I can’t quite make out what he’s saying, but I think I recognize the voice.
It sounds a little like our friendly neighborhood ranger, Brad.
The man I should’ve listened to yesterday instead of chasing him away, acting like an angry wolf.
He was invading my territory though, and at the worst time. Delaying me from claiming my woman, I should’ve done more than just chase him away.
“Do you think he’s in trouble?” Tessa asks, and I can only grunt a sound, my hand fine tuning the CB, trying to get a better signal.
“He could be trying to hail whoever sent that flare up, but with this storm, the signals are all over the place… It does look close to his station though,” I say under my breath.
Wondering why I didn’t listen to Brad yesterday, until I look over and see the answer staring right back at me, blinking.
“We’ll have to go check it out.” I tell her, if Brad or anyone else is in trouble, we might be the only ones who can get them out.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Tessa
With his trademark style, Sean has set my mind at ease, continued our escape plan as well as taken the time to put others first by deciding to rescue someone else along the way.
What can I say? The man’s incredible.
My own hang-ups aren’t my imagination, Sean’s helped me to realize that. And going to the camp sure has been a surprise revelation about how much the forgotten past really has affected my adult life.
But best of all, hearing Sean tell me he loves me no matter what, that he loves me for me and not just for what I look like. There are guys who like bigger girls, and like his bed, Sean needs a bigger woman to accommodate his size.
I’ve still got some issues with how I look, but they’re my own, I guess. I tell myself to stop wasting time wondering whether or not Sean’s into me and start enjoying the fact that he really, truly is. And I’m so deep into him that it hurts my chest when I think about how much I love him.
I try and keep my eyes on the flare and where it looks like it came from, but Sean seems convinced it’s coming from near the ranger’s station so he tells me we’ll head over there.
I keep an eye on the huge swirling mass of sky behind us, which seems so close but Sean assures me it’s still a fair way off.
“If we can keep up our speed, providing that doesn’t get any quicker, we should be okay,” he says confidently.
He dials the radio some more, and before long we both hear Brad’s voice.
He’s stranded alright. His truck’s broken down and with the storm cell almost right on top of us, he’s trying to radio anybody he can for help.
The satellite signals are down and it looks like we’re the only ones who can get to Brad in time.
“Did you try the radio before?” Sean asks him, “It was switched off…” he says, looking a little guilty.
“No,” Brad says, “After yesterday, I figured you would be the last person who’d want to help me… I thought you were gonna break me in half… whatever I
