Page 34 of Crossroads of Love

“No, you lost the past eighteen years with your brother and your father for no reason. You barely know your niece. Don’t make the same mistake with her, too.”

As I walk toward the front door, I hear the chair in the kitchen scrape against the linoleum.

“Lena.”

I hesitate for just a moment, but when he doesn’t say anything else, I continue out the front door.

I want him to stay, I really do, because I want to believe that he could be that amazing man I used to know. But he was never that man to begin with.

I won’t be his fool ever again.

Chapter Seven

Gavin

Why am I not stopping her?

I groan inwardly before I start after her. At the same time, the tornado siren outside starts howling to alert us of bad weather.

What on earth?It wasn’t even raining earlier.

I half jog toward the door to look outside. The rain is coming down in sheets. The sky is dark, and a funnel cloud is dropping out of it. Lena stands on the porch, staring at it like it’s a mirage.

It could be. I don’t know when the last time there was a tornado anywhere around here.

“What are you doing? Get inside!” I growl as I grab her wrist and pull her behind me.

“It’s nothing right now,” she scoffs, yanking away from me. “My phone alerts say it’s just a thunderstorm warning.”

“There’s a funnel cloud. I’m not going to let you get hurt.”

“You’re not going todoanything.” She sighs as she shakes her head and pulls away from me. “I should be in town.”

“You can’t drive in this, Lena. Look at that tree out there; it’s practically bending in half.”

The sky turns a sickly shade of green, the color that makes my gut clench with a sense of impending doom. It’s more than just the distant rumble of thunder or the way the wind has suddenly stopped, making the world eerily still.

“We need to get into the pantry.”

“I need to get to the high school and make sure Jayla is safe.”

I close my eyes for a beat, trying to rein in my frustration.

This damn woman. She’s still just as stubborn as ever.

“Jayla’s fine. They have protocols for this kind of thing, and you know they’ll be in the hallway. You standing here isn’t going to help. She probably doesn’t have her phone on her either.”

Her eyes finally meet mine, sharp and full of the same fire that’s always driven me crazy about her.

“I’m not hiding in some pantry while Jayla…while the town…”

“Jayla doesn’t need to lose her mom because she was swept away in flood waters or hit by a tree or a flying cow.”

“Flying cow, seriously?” She laughs as she rolls her eyes. “That only happens in movies.”

“Says you.”

Her lips part, but she doesn’t get the chance to answer before the first bolt of lightning splits the sky, followed almost instantly by a deafening crack of thunder. The storm is moving fast.

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