Chapter 6 #3
While Roger was loading the dishwasher, she poured herself a glass of sweet tea, grabbed a cookie, and noticed a stoop to his shoulders that hadn’t been there before, and the balding spot at the back of his head was now a little wider.
It was startling to see the change, and any aspect of aging.
She was wanting time to speed up, while her dad was probably wishing it wouldn’t go so fast.
“Good night,” she said, and went upstairs to watch TV.
* * *
Across town, Tate was also raiding the kitchen, looking for something sweet.
Tomorrow was his day off, and after rescuing his boss from a possible tragedy, he was glad he wasn’t going to be at the store.
The chance that Andy Sparks wouldn’t talk about his part in stopping a robbery was slim to none.
* * *
In spite of everything, Briar slept like a baby. Her alarm went off as usual, and after washing up, she hurried down to breakfast, still in her pajamas.
But her heart skipped when she entered the kitchen. There was a suitcase near the back door. Had her mother had finally come home? She braced herself for the worst as she entered the kitchen, but her mother wasn’t there—only her father, dressed in casual clothes and downing his last bite of toast.
Roger glanced up and smiled.
Briar could tell the smile was forced.
“Good morning, honey. Change of plans for the day. I’m going to Savannah to talk to your mother. I know it’s short notice, but do you want to go with me and see your grandparents?”
She frowned. “Absolutely not. My grandparents are strangers to me. You and Mom need to talk without me in the picture. Right now, I’m the catalyst for all of your fights, and I want nothing to do with whatever you decide.
I will be leaving for college after Christmas, and you two trying to control my life will come to a swift end. ”
Roger reared back as if dodging a fist, then braced himself for the next blow. “Christmas? How do—”
“Tate and I have been taking extra classes for two years. We’re both graduating after the first semester this fall. I will start college somewhere in January of next year.”
Roger was floored and trying to regain his fatherly footing. “Well, Miss Independent. Who do you think will be paying for your college?”
“Me, that’s who. My grades are excellent.
I have already taken my SAT. I’m hoping for full scholarships to several colleges.
And if I have to, I will work to pay for my housing.
If I don’t get the full scholarship I need, I’ll take whatever I can get and work harder.
It will take longer to get my degree, but I will get it. Never doubt that.”
His heart skipped. He hadn’t expected that level of independence. In fact, it felt like outright defiance, and the thought of losing touch with her by the end of this year hurt his heart.
“What about your grand romance?” he asked.
“That will never be any of your business or concern. Have a safe trip.”
Roger frowned. “Do not bring that boy into this house while I am gone.”
She rolled her eyes. “You flatter yourself, Daddy. I couldn’t drag him in here if I tried. I know he carried me in when I hurt my ankle, but that was an exception. In his mind, this is the home of the woman who nearly killed his mother.”
Roger’s eyes widened. His face flushed, and his shoulders slumped. He had never once considered Tate’s viewpoint of them. “I’m sorry about that. It was an unfortunate incident.”
Briar rolled her eyes. “Unfortunate incident? It was a brutal and uncalled-for assault. I saw it. You didn’t. Remember that.”
His heart sank. In choosing not to divorce his wife all those years ago, he’d lost his daughter’s respect instead, and now it was too late to fix it.
“Fine. Just be careful. Be sure to lock up before you go to bed. I’ll call you tonight to check on you.
I’ll be back in two or three days, but it will likely be late,” he said, then he picked up his suitcase and left the house.
Briar followed him, locked it behind him, and then turned around and went to make herself something to eat. She wanted to talk to Tate, but thinking he would be getting ready to go to work, she decided to wait until his lunch break.
After putting a load of laundry in to wash and cleaning up the kitchen, she went back upstairs to her room, turned on the TV, and crawled back into bed.
It was a heady feeling, having the house all to herself, and after a couple of hours of watching TV, she fell asleep with the remote still in her hand.
* * *
The sun was coming through the curtains in Tate’s bedroom when he woke the second time. He remembered about the lawn needing to be mowed and flew out of bed. It would get too hot to mow by afternoon. It was now or never.
After getting dressed, he had a honey bun with a glass of milk then headed to the backyard to get the lawn mower from the shed.
A quick refill of the gas tank, and he was hard at it, mowing the yard in the front of the house first, because it didn’t have as much shade, then starting on the backyard as the sun climbed higher in the sky.
He was nearly finished when he began noticing the sun periodically disappearing behind incoming clouds. He paused the edger and looked up. Storm clouds were building in the distance. “Shoot,” he muttered, and hurried to finish up.
A short while later as he was showering off, he thought about calling Briar, but he’d missed the chance to call her at noon, so he grabbed a cold pop from the refrigerator and stretched out on the couch to watch TV.
He got up in the middle of a commercial thinking he’d go make himself a sandwich, and he was in the kitchen when he heard the unmistakable beep of a weather alert on TV and stopped what he was doing to check it out.
Concern rose. The gathering clouds had run into an updraft and were now registering mesocyclones, which meant the oncoming storm could drop a tornado at any given time, in any random place.
Star Ridge was directly in the path, and the weatherman’s voice was like the voice of God…
giving him all the warning he was going to get.
“…moving from the northeast over the ridge in a south to southeasterly direction. All those in the path of this storm need to seek shelter now. If you do not have a storm shelter, go to the lowest portion of your house and into an inner closet or a bathroom…”
Tate blanked out the rest of what the weatherman was saying, because he was already seeing what would happen when it came over the ridge.
It was going right over Briar’s house, and he was seeing her in a hallway, trying to open a door and crying hysterically.
Without thinking, he grabbed the keys to his dad’s work truck, calling Briar on his phone as he ran.
Even as he was backing out of the carport, he knew the chance to get to her in time wasn’t good, but it was Briar, and he had no choice. He shifted the truck into drive and took off through the streets toward her house.
The sky was black now and dropping windblown rain, and the farther he went, the more it felt like he was driving into a portal to hell. The windshield wipers were on high, and yet he could barely see where he was going.
Then it began to hail.
“God help us,” he muttered, and floored it.
* * *
Briar was switching laundry, and the TV was on in the kitchen, when she heard the shrill beeping of a weather alert.
She dropped what she was doing and ran to hear what the weatherman was saying.
When she saw the map and heard the warning, she knew it was her signal to take shelter.
She turned and ran for the hall and the door leading down into the basement.
But to her horror, when she tried to turn the knob, it wouldn’t turn.
Her heart skipped. “What the hell?” she muttered, and tried again, and again, shaking the door, then throwing her weight against it, thinking it was stuck, until it dawned on her that the door was locked. She had shelter, but no way to get to it.
Then she remembered the extra set of house keys hanging on a hook in the kitchen and ran back down the hall, but the key hook was empty. The second set of keys was nowhere to be found.
The wind was getting stronger outside, blowing the rain against the windows so hard she was certain they were going to shatter. She could hear a faint roar within it, like before…when their school and church blew away. But before she could think what to do next, there was a huge crash behind her.
She screamed and dropped to the floor behind the island just as the sliding glass doors leading out to the patio shattered inward.
A huge limb from one of the trees in their backyard was now in the kitchen, like a broken umbrella above her head.
The floor was covered in shattered glass, and rain and wind were blowing in.
She crawled out from beneath the limbs and was in an all-out panic, certain she was about to die, when her phone rang.
It was Tate.
She answered, screaming. “I can’t get in my basement and part of a tree just blew into the kitchen. Glass and rain are everywhere.”
“I know, baby, I know. I’m almost at your house. Get to your front porch now! We don’t have much time!”
She dropped her cell phone in her pocket and sprinted through the house and out onto the porch. Even though she was standing beneath the roof, she was immediately drenched, and the wind was so strong she had to hold onto the porch posts to stay upright.
Seconds later, Tate came up her driveway, skidded to a stop, and jumped out running.
She leaped into his arms at the steps, then they turned and ran, with him dragging her as they went. He was about halfway to his truck when he felt a sharp pain in the back of his leg, then another pain high on his left shoulder, but he never missed a step.