“Hey, I’m Kate. Effie text to say you were coming and blah blah... no time for introductions. You need to get into our storm cellar!” she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me further into the building.
3
We walked through to the back door, out onto a patchy lawn and down through a hatch in the ground. Kate pointed to the ladder and had me climb down first, then as she followed, she reached up to bring the hatch door down over the entrance and sealed us both inside.
We weren’t alone down here. There was a light illuminating the shelter and padded seats around the edge of the small room. It reminded me of a holding cell from movies, the blank faces staring forward waiting for whatever was fated for them.
“Hey, this is Sadie. Y’all knew she was coming so don’t stare,” Kate announced. There was a wave of acknowledging groans as I smiled at everyone. I wanted to leave behind my old personality of shying away in the shadows and become more approachable. I had been almost cripplingly introverted back on the mainland, but this was a new start for me. A chance to be whatever I wanted.
“You’re weird, I dig it.” I turned to see a young guy in a sheriff’s uniform perched on the edge of one of the perimeter seats. He was distractingly attractive; it had made the breath catch in my throat. The sun had kissed his skin to a rich bronze and the seams of his shirt struggled to contain his muscular arms. I could only imagine that my gawping face was doing me no favors.
“Sadie,” I blurted.
“Yeah, Kate just told us,” he laughed. “I’m Miller.” I reached out a hand to shake his, then saw him pull back as he looked at my palm.
“I’m sticky!” I said. This was possibly the worst interaction with a guy I’d ever had. Miller seemed to find it amusing at least.
“You picked up a donut on the way, huh? We’ve all been there, am I right?” he asked the rest of the shelter gang. They nodded in agreement. “I take it you didn’t know there was a storm coming, most mainland folk have no idea about real weather.”
“No, I just allowed myself to be kidnapped by a stranger with lemonade. I probably should have put up more of a fight,” I smiled.
“You’re new, it’s okay. Most folk around here will have your best interests at heart. Especially the interests of an Alden,” he whispered. He spoke my last name as if it were a secret. I hadn’t told him my last name, neither had Kate. My face must have betrayed my confusion. “We don’t get a lot of people moving here so when we do it is big news.”
“Oh, well I just hope I live up to the hype,” I laughed.
“I’m sure you will,” he said. I felt the heat rise up in my cheeks and I was sure I was glowing like a traffic light. He was flirting, right? I hadn’t been in a flirty conversation in so long that I wasn’t sure I would even recognize the signs.
Miller leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Was he taking a nap? I didn’t know where to look anymore. I turned back to look for Kate, the only other person who’s name I knew, and found her patting a space next to her on the perimeter bench.
“Don’t worry about that,” she said, nodding her head upwards to gesture at the sleeping sheriff. “There has been some really petty dispute over land ownership on the islands recently and he has been trying to reason with the unreasonable for, like, four straight days.”
“Oh?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, not yet at least,” she winked. Was I supposed to know what that wink meant? “When you live in an isolated community like this it can put a magnifying glass on small problems, people lose their heads over the dumbest stuff. Don’t even get me started on the restaurant fire.”
“Your place was on fire?” I gasped.
“Another time,” she sighed. “You don’t have your phone, right?”
“No I left it with my suitcase. I haven’t got any signal anyway,” I explained.
“Well you are gonna need to sort that out. We all get emergency weather alerts through an app and it could save your life. If you die here, then it’s going to be really problematic.”
I chuckled and then locked eyes with Kate, quickly realizing that it wasn’t a joke.
“Y... yeah. I don’t want to die either, that would be problematic for me too,” I stuttered. She grinned.
“You really aren’t what I expected,” she said, looking me up and down as if assessing my size. I wasn’t sure what that statement meant. It didn’t feel like a compliment, but it wasn’t abrasive either. It was open to interpretation, maybe that’s why she phrased it that way.
A beeping echoed through the shelter, followed shortly after by a series of sighs from the group and then suddenly everyone rose to their feet.
“You all know the drill. Wait!” Kate announced. She had the same authority as her sister, one I didn’t dare question or challenge. Everyone sat down again, and Kate began to climb back up the ladder to unlock the hatch door. “Sadie, you’re with me.” I complied and scurried up the ladder after her, despite having no idea what to expect back on the surface.
I hadn’t heard any wild winds or heavy rains down in the shelter, but clearly both had happened. Miller had been distracting, sure, but enough so that a storm had passed
