Page 14 of Catch a Kiwi
Back along the way I’d driven before, then, though Roman took the twisting gravel road a whole lot faster than I had. The night was black, and I couldn’t see a thing.
Roman said, when we’d turned into his drive, “The lights ought to be coming on,” but that didn’t make it happen. All I saw was a sort of wavering pattern on the ground, picked out in the headlights.
“Bloody hell,” he said, and I realized what it was. Standing water.
He didn’t say anything else, just handed me a big flashlight from under the driver’s seat and said, “Come on,” before climbing out of the car. How many times had he said “Come on” tonight?
We sloshed through calf-deep water that stung my cut leg like crazy and made me glad of the antibiotic tablets and reached the front door, where the light from Roman’s phone picked out a keypad. He punched something in and nothing happened, and he said, “Hang on,” and walked away.
I heard the car door opening, and Delilah said, “What’s he doing? It would suck if he drove off and left us here.”
“If he does,” I said, “I’m breaking a window and getting in that way.” Maybe my dream of jail time could come true after all.
“I heard that,” Roman said from behind me, then he was at the door again. “Key. Backup systems are important.”
He opened the door and said, “Shit.”
“I told you,” Delilah said, “Summer doesn’t like?—”
“Shh,” I hissed. Men tended to lose their tempers when enough bad things happened, or sometimes whenanybad things happened. Roman hadn’t exploded yet tonight, but still—better to shut up and go along. Rather than, for example, suggesting that he had no heart, after everything he’d done.
Roman, though, just said, “Reckon it’s a good thing I drove down here tonight, setting aside rescuing the two of you.” Oddly, he seemedlessirritable than before. Unusual. “Come in,” he added. “I’d tell you to take off your shoes, but I think you’d better leave them on.”
Oh. Because there was quite a bit of water on the floor. At least an inch of it. I said, “You flooded.” Stupidly.
He didn’t say, “You think?” like I’d have expected. He said, “We’ll deal with it tomorrow. Follow me,” and we followed his light through the house. A house that went on, and on, and on. I could swear the hallway was curving, too, but that must just be my confused brain.
Roman made a right turn, and I swung the flashlight. Bedroom. He said, “One room, or two? Bed’s a good size, and there’s an ensuite bath, but we can do two if you’d rather.”
“I’ve never slept naked with another woman,” Delilah apparently decided it was a good time to inform him. “Breaking new ground here. Of course, it’s my cousin, and I grew up with her and she probably doesn’t lust for me, so maybe it won’t be as exciting as I think.”
“One,” I said, because answering Roman was easier than answering Delilah. “Because I’m freezing.”
“Hang on,” Roman said. “I’ll grab some towels. You can keep the torch. I have others.”
“Of course you do.” That was me being snarky again. Would Istop?It wasn’t comfortable, though, being here in his house, having nowhere else to go. I would so much rather have been in … well, not the shelter, obviously, or I’d have asked him to take us there. And not in a jail cell or the hospital lobby, either, so I needed to shut up, get Delilah into the shower, take one myself, and get some sleep.
It would be better in the morning. It was always better in the morning.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple.
Roman
I was propped against the pillows on the bed, checking the news on my phone to gauge the likelihood of getting electricity back tomorrow so I could get on with some cleanup, when I heard something. A sort of splashing. Either a family of seals had decided to come live in my delightfully underwater dream house, or somebody was out there.
I put the phone down, headed outside through the irrigation, and saw the light of the torch bouncing around the curve of a wall.
“Keep coming,” I called out. “I’m back here.” And when the light got closer, asked, “Lost?”
“Just about,” Summer said. I couldn’t see her beyond the light, which she’d lowered so as not to blind me. “How big is this house? I was wishing for a ball of string.”
“Like Theseus in the labyrinth of the Minotaur, eh. Hopefully I’m not that scary.”
“Annoyingly literate reference, but at least I know what that is,” she said. “More or less. Tonight, more less than more.” I felt rather than saw her shiver. “Is there somewhere I can talk to you where we’re not in water?”
“Here.” I led the way back into my bedroom. “Better climb onto the bed. Otherwise I’m going to be shouting to you across the dark.”
“Oh. OK.” Dubious as hell.
