Chapter 32
Keel could tell something was wrong, but he didn’t want to push Frankie away. She needed time to heal. Maybe they shouldn’t have had sex, but the moment he’d seen her, the pull to be with her was nearly overwhelming.
He wasn’t some hormonal kid. He could have held off, maybe suggested they go for a walk or watch a movie. She didn’t need the pressure of having him crawl all over her.
By dinner time that night, he knew he had to apologize. She needed to be reassured that he wasn’t ever going to force anything on her.
Keel was about to say something when both of their phones started squawking with an alert. He grabbed his phone, and Frankie grabbed hers.
“Tornado?” Frankie asked.
“The bathroom is the best place. Come on, we can hunker down and see what happens.”
He hated bad weather like this. He could control other things in life, but he couldn’t control a tornado or a hurricane. If a tornado hit his house, the best he could do was hang on and not get swept away.
“Does this happen often?” He didn’t like how Frankie’s voice shook.
“Yes and no. The weather is unpredictable. At least with a hurricane, we know it’s coming. Storms that sweep in from the west bring chaos.”
Frankie chewed on her thumbnail, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. She glanced up and met his gaze with trusting eyes. The earlier uncomfortableness seemed to have dissipated with the weather warning.
“Hey, I have a good grip, and if it hits, I’ll stretch out over you. Just hold on, and I’ll hold on to you.”
“But it’s a tornado.”
“Yes, and we’ll fight like hell to resist the wind.”
Laughter spilled from her lips. “You’re too funny.”
He chuckled, glad that she was laughing in such a stressful moment.
A wall of rain lashed at the windows, echoing in the bathroom.
He wished he had an interior bathroom, but he didn’t.
Any interior room he had didn’t have enough floor space.
He guessed he could clean out one of the larger closets on the ground floor, but there wouldn’t be room enough for both of them.
At least the glass was impact-resistant.
It wouldn’t save them from a direct hit from a tornado, but the window could take a strong whack from a two-by-four.
“It will be okay.” Keel pulled up the weather application on his phone, hoping everything would be okay. He found a map with the information for the tornado cell. It looked like the main part of the storm would hit about a mile north of them. He breathed out a sigh of relief.
“What does the radar look like?”
He held his phone so she could see it. “Like it’s tracking a little to the north.”
“Those poor people.”
“Yeah. I hope everyone is okay.”
The sound of the wind changed, and Frankie flinched. He pulled her closer, and she cuddled up next to him, her hands holding on to his shirt.
“I’ve never been through a tornado like this. I’ve seen it on TV, but never had one hit close to where I live.”
“It will be okay. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but few tornadoes actually hit.”
She nodded. “But a few do.”
He would give her that. It was the truth. “Yeah, you’re right. This isn’t the worst place for storms, but it can be scary at times.”
“So you get scared by storms?”
He wouldn’t admit this to anyone else, but with Frankie, he wanted to be real.
“I do. I try to keep my head on straight, but storms are unpredictable. The enemy I face in my job, I know what they’re about.
Wild animals act in certain ways, but the weather is weird.
We can forecast, have predictions, and try to guess what will happen, but with weather, it will bite you in the ass if you aren’t careful. ”
The rain calmed a little, and Frankie relaxed some. She let go of a heavy sigh, and he squeezed her closer. He liked having her close, liked being with her, and he hoped like crazy they could figure everything out and make it work.
The thought was almost like a physical hit.
Was he really ready for a long-term commitment?
He’d thought he loved Shana, and maybe he had in a way, but this feeling he had for Frankie was different.
He wanted this thing with Frankie to last. Maybe they wouldn’t make it forever, but he damn sure was going to try.