Chapter 10 #2
“Did I?” Being honest, she said, “I move around too much for a family or roots or relationships.”
“And you don’t plan to have roots anytime soon?”
Longing filled her, but she shook her head, popping some kernels into her mouth to keep from having to say more.
She glanced up at him and found him watching her.
Her breath ceased, and it took a moment for her to inhale again after she swallowed.
Because the way he looked at her? “Why have roots when you can fly? As to you, I’m sure you’ll do fine when you’re finally ready.
I’d say you’ve turned that broody blue gaze of yours on many unsuspecting women and used it to your advantage. That won’t change.”
The words emerged husky and murmured, but the air stilled around them and thickened. The soft light of the battery lantern left one side of his face shadowy, but even that didn’t disguise the heat in the gaze she mentioned.
Gage tilted his head to one side, canting it as though to see her better.
“Would that include you?” He lifted his hand and took hold of one of her curls, and she watched him watch it wrap around his finger.
“Gage…” She couldn’t form the protest she knew she needed to make. Should make. Because this night? This man? It was the most fun she’d had in years. He was handsome and interesting. And a woman would have to be blind not to notice or…be curious.
“Why are you so afraid of the wind?”
The question slapped her in the face. “There’s…that’s a hurricane outside.”
“I hate to say it, but what’s happening out there now is just a little wind. The worst is yet to come, Merida.”
Distance. She needed distance. To get away from the heat of his body pressed along her side and the scent of his soap or cologne or whatever it was that made her think of spending their time hunkered down doing other things. “My name is Sloane.”
“Why are you dodging my questions, Sloane? There’s a story there. I’d like to hear it. And I’d like to think you’d trust me enough by now to tell me.”
A story made it sound…romantic. Soft. But it wasn’t.
It was ugly and brutal and full of painful come-to-Jesus moments that things happened and sometimes nothing made sense.
“My mother was killed by the wind.” A rough laugh left her, the sound holding tears she struggled to tamp down.
“By a tree, kinda like me getting taken out by the branch earlier. I don’t like it because we all know lightning kills people.
Flooding. Tornadoes. But wind? Just wind? ”
“What happened?”
Gage’s husky query made her struggle for control harder than ever. She closed her eyes and immediately saw it in her mind, not that it was ever too far away. “It—It had rained for a week straight, and…the wind toppled a tree onto her car right as she drove past.”
“Ah, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
She couldn’t look at him and swallowed hard to contain the tears suddenly clogging her throat. “I saw it happen. She was— She was coming up our driveway. Almost home. So close. I was waiting, watching for her because I-I needed to talk to her about something. She was almost home.”
“You saw it happen?”
Gage released a gush of air from his lungs and moved to pull her against him once more.
She knew it was highly inappropriate given he was her boss but right now? With all they’d talked about and shared?
She didn’t care.
She wouldn’t be in town long, but she needed this hug, his strength, more than she needed her next breath.
So she buried her face against him once more and let him chase away the memories as the wind raged outside.
Whistling through the crooks and crannies as lightning sizzled with loud, crackling bursts and thunder rumbled like boulders rolling against each other.
All the sounds she’d heard that day as she’d run from the house and down the driveway screaming for her mom.
She thought she felt Gage’s lips brush her hair, but given how thick and curly it was, she figured it was a figment of her imagination.
Another secret want of hers for connection and comfort with a man she’d found attractive from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, staring at her through the car window with a look of such concern…
“I should’ve made you evacuate. If I had, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Wouldn’t be so scared now and reliving what happened to your mom.”
She shook her head but didn’t lift it, every breath full of Gage-steadiness that soothed her chaotic senses and brought a comfort she couldn’t allow herself to name. “I can’t imagine being stuck on a highway somewhere in this. Or—or alone. I’d rather be here.”
Maybe it made her sound weak, but that was another thing she didn’t care about. With every blast of wind against the house, she felt it, saw it, that moment where she’d watched the one person in her home who truly understood her, die.
Gage hugged her tighter, and they stayed like that for a long while, there in the glowing shadows, side-by-side and cuddled up like two teenagers watching a scary movie.
They didn’t speak more, but it wasn’t awkward or weird. The hurricane raged outside, but with every breath and rub of his hand on her shoulder, every soothing, distracting caress of his fingers against her nape, she forgot about the storm and caught her breath at the one stirring between them.
His touch brought comfort, but also a yearning that had been growing lately. That of finding a place, a person, a life. A home. An overwhelming desire to be able to relax and not worry about whether Noah was about to appear.
Roots. Family.
For this—this right here—to be the norm. The quiet pleasure of peace and security. Safety.
She rolled her head along his upper arm and glanced up to find him studying her.
Her breath caught and held in her chest when his gaze lowered to her lips.
Her lungs expanded as her breathing quickened.
She waited. Hoped. And watched as he lowered his head as though to kiss her only to stop and pull back with a sudden jerk.
“I should go check the door downstairs. Make sure we’re not flooding.”
She watched Gage extract himself and surge to his feet to head toward the stairway, grabbing up one of the lanterns along the way and clicking it on to take with him. His footsteps thudded against the treads, and he disappeared.
Sloane leaned her head back against the couch cushion with a soft groan, wondering what insanity had overtaken her senses.
Days. She’d been here for a matter of days, but one thing was blatantly clear.
Earning her Salt Life sticker like a coastal local might require more from her than just making it through a hurricane.