Page 9 of An Unexpected Twist

“Not like it matters, I can barely take care of myself right now, I don’t need a man to complicate things. Even if he is sweetandeasy on the eyes.”

The wall she was standing by started to shake and she could feel the cool gusts sneaking in between the barn rafters.

“Not again?” Maybe she needed to rethink her desire to live in the west. She hadn’t even been there forty-eight hours and almost been swept away by a tornado. From the sounds of it there was another one coming.

The wind was really whistling loud and she could hear the barn roof being pelted, which was probably hail. But she also heard a faint voice, just couldn’t make it out. Then the barn door swung open and Boone ran inside.

“Thank god you’re okay.” He scooped her up in his arms and held her tight.Oh, boy does he smell good.

“I’m good but what’s happening? It’s so loud in here and the wind is horrible again.”

“There’s another twister coming and we need to get out of this barn. There’s a stone well house out past the barn. It’ll be closer to go there than back into the house.”

“Are you sure we should be outside?”

“We don’t have much choice now; this old rickety barn is not the place to be. To many things could fall apart, I don’t want to take any chances with it.”

“Alright, I trust you. Lead the way.” She smiled at Boone but didn’t feel as confident as she sounded. She did however, feel safe with this man she’d only just met.

“I’ll carry your suitcase if you take your purse.” He took a firm grasp on her hand and led them to the door.

“Now, when I open it, the wind is gonna hold it open and I’m gonna run out the door. Are you good with that?”

“Let’s do it.” Good thing she’d put on her running shoes this morning before she left the hotel.

Boone grabbed the door handle, then glanced back at her, giving a reassuring squeeze and a smile.A girl could get lost in those eyes.

“Here we go.” He pushed open the door and they both took off at a dead run, letting him lead the way.

Chapter Six

The run across the yard hadn’t been as easy as he’d hoped with debris flying everywhere. When they reached the door, it was padlocked.

“Are you shitting me right now?” He’d never needed to get in there before since it wasn’t a working well anymore and had no clue where the key might be to this building, but they didn’t have time to fiddle with it.

“If you could stand right here by the door, I need to find something to break that lock off.” The wind was whistling so loud he had to yell close to her ear so she could hear him.

“Would it be easy to pick the lock?” She was positioned up against the wood trying to shelter herself from the hail falling all over.

“No clue, never done that before. I think it’d be easiest to bust it off, it looks old.”

He sat her suitcase down on the ground beside her and while sticking close to the building, searched around the ground hoping to find an old tool or a big rock he could beat the thing apart with.

She tapped him on the back to get his attention.

“Will this work?” She handed him a big breaker bar. “I found it over there along the side.”

“That’s perfect, I could kiss you right now.” He had her stand back from the doorway while he gave the padlock a few good hits and while the lock itself didn’t come apart, the rusted metal screws that secured the eyelet came right out of the door and it all dropped to the ground.

“After you.” He opened the rickety door and waited while she walked in ahead of him. There were no windows in the old brick building but it looked sturdy enough and there were a couple big water pipes stuck down into the ground.

“We could probably anchor ourselves to these things, I’m sure they go down into the well which should at least a good hundred feet deep.” Several leather straps were hanging from the wall so he started to wrap one around them both.

“When you got up this morning did you ever think you’d be playing rescue hero to a woman you don’t know?”

“You’re right about that. When I got up this morning, I was yelling at my brother for leaving my bathroom a soaked mess.”

“Oh, your brother lives with you?” She didn’t see any signs of another person around.

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