Page 35 of Forced Proximity
He grabbed all the supplies that he would need, finding some masking tape in the drawer closest to the back door, and jerked his chin at me. “Go. To the door right off the living room. It was a utility room.”
I went, not letting myself freak out until I was behind the closed door next to the nicest set of washers and dryers—yes, washers and dryers plural.
“Do you think that it’s a tornado?”
He patted the dryer and said, “Put ’im down.”
I did, watching with rapt fascination as he changed the baby, then wrapped him up with a couple of towels and some masking tape.
Only when he was done did he say, “The radar said that it was heading right toward us.”
I felt my stomach sink.
I’d hoped that I wasn’t right about where my thoughts were headed.
“We survived two disasters already, right?” I asked nervously. “What’s one more?”
The lights went out, and the bravado I’d been feigning fled the scene.
I tensed, but only until a set of arms came around me. “Let’s sit down.”
So that was what we did.
We listened to the world around us, not saying a word, until finally the wind was just gone.
In its place was such total silence that it made my eyes squeeze shut.
“We’re not dead, are we?” I teased.
The arms around me squeezed a little tighter. “No.”
“What do we do now?” I breathed.
He threaded one hand up into my hair and started to massage my scalp. “We wait for my club to find us.”
It took them eight hours.
And I’d never in my life been so happy to see a group so scary.
Mostly because I was way overstimulated because the tiny baby had absolutely refused anything bottle-wise since he’d had the last one his mother had prepared.
I was at my wits’ end, and listening to his hungry cry for a second longer sounded like torture.
But Finnian wouldn’t allow us to leave.
We’d exited the closet, but we hadn’t gone farther than the living room.
When the first sounds of a four-wheeler reached our ears, Finnian stood up languidly, unfolding himself from the couch with a savage grace that sent shivers down my spine.
“That’s them.”
His club had arrived, and they were as scary as ever.
I stood up, the baby in my arms crying like crazy, and headed to the front door right along with Finnian.
When we got there, it was to see several very large men getting off four-wheelers and side-by-sides, looking rugged and handsome, and a hell of a lot intimidating.
I didn’t miss how one of the biggest of them all, a man with the name “Knight” on his breast pocket, walked right up to Finnian and lifted him straight off his feet in a large bear hug.
