Page 94 of Home Tears

Dani stood. “You’re not that guy for me.”

He held a hand out to her, stopping her. “Okay. I’m not asking for anything. I’m just telling. I’m telling you that I love you.” His eyes warmed, becoming tender. “You’re always going to be that for me.”

This man saw her at her worst. He had been there for her, but it was too late. She was too damaged then, and now—“I’m with Jonah.”

“Dani.”

He reached for her, but she evaded him. “No. I’m telling you. No.”

He wasn’t listening to her. She saw the earnest look in his eyes, and her heart sank. She knew what she had to say, but no one wants to hurt another person they cared about. She had, too.

“You are not my future.”

Boone left the room, but Dani stayed back. She needed silence. She needed the emptiness to just breathe. Saying those words to someone she cared about, knowing she hurt him took everything out of her. She needed twenty minutes, then she would stand up, then she would keep going.

But until then—twenty minutes.

She got eighteen of them.

“Okay.” Aiden burst through the doors, waving her hands. “We’ve got a problem. A very, very, big problem and I don’t know what to do about it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Jonah is at the winner’s table right now, and it’s him with Jake and Jeffries, and there are flash flood warnings going on right now, but—”

“Are you at a lower elevation? Is water pooling up outside?”

Aiden’s terror was evident as she nodded. Her face drained of any color. Her eyes were wide and her bottom lip trembled.

Flash floods happen fast. This wasn’t a tsunami, but Dani knew they had to act fast. She shoved her panic aside, all the ghosts and hauntings that were at her backside—she ignored every single one of them. Resting a hand on Aiden’s arm, she said in a firm, but gentle tone, “People are drunk, so that means we have to get them out. I’ll talk to Bubba. He’ll have to go to a neighbor’s, see if they have any boats. You gather as many blankets as you can. And flashlights.”

“Okay.” Her entire body was shaking.

“Aiden.”

She had rushed to the door, but stopped and looked back. Dani said, “We’ll get through this.”

Aiden jerked her head up in a nod. “I hope so.”

She left. Dani exhaled and looked over her shoulder to the blanket of rain that pounded the house. She remembered the wind. It was the first thing that slammed against their building. The wind howled, and Dani remembered the anchor that fell in her stomach.

It was back again, but she wasn’t back.

Different time. Different place. No ocean. No tsunami. No children going to die. And Dani wasn’t going to be alone this time. This wasn’t that storm. She wouldn’t let it happen, not again, but she still felt that same knot start to clench inside of her. It wasn’t going to go away until she saw the sun, the clear sky, and everyone was still breathing around her.

The party sounded louder against her eardrums, harsher. The people seemed more drunk, and the giddy laughs were surreal to Dani as she shoved through the crowd, finally stumbling to the stairs.

She heard cursing and recognized who it was. She flung the bathroom door open, and it was. “Bubba!”

He turned, a plunger in his hands. “Uh, yeah?” He wiped his chin against his shoulder. Some sweat clung there. “Can this wait? I’m in the middle of a flooded toilet here.”

“What’s the elevation for this place?”

“Huh?”

“If there were warnings of flash floods—what’s the chance of this house getting flooded?”

He put the plunger away. “Aiden wasn’t freaking out about a toilet before, was she?” Then it was like her words registered with him, and he paled. “Oh, my God.”

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