“What if we don’t? What if she’s gone? What if I only got those brief moments because she was always Lucas’s? Jesus, I haven’t even met my baby girl yet.” The shit my brain was stirring up had me second-guessing everything.
“Hell, no. Stop with the fucking ‘what-if’ bullshit. We don’t do that.”
“Goddamn, Nic, I still wish you’d joined up with me and we’d been a team. We’d have been unstoppable.” The corner of my lips turned up in a wry grin.
“Damn straight. But hell, there was no real guarantee, and we could have been separated the entire time. At least the way things were, we collaborated on a lot of missions together. Besides, I think we needed time to grow. And what is it Lucas and your mom always said?”
Snorting out a laugh, I quoted Lucas. “Everything happens for a reason.”
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! Sure you don’t want a bite of my meat?” He shoved that damn Slim Jim at me again, waving it around, and busted out laughing.
“No one wants your nasty-ass meat, Salvatore,” Aiden mumbled from the back seat.
“There’s a list of women who would say different.” Dominic’s smug response elicited a groan before Aiden struggled to untwist himself and sit up.
“I was sleeping good back here, dreaming of big ol’ titties for days, and then I get to wake up to frickin’ Salvatore talking about his meat. Jesus. How close are we to Boise? I gotta piss.”
“Goddammit, Aiden, why’d you have to talk about pissin’? Now I gotta go.” Logan grumbled into the back of my seat where his head was resting.
“Traveling with you motherfuckers is like traveling with five-year-olds.” Dominic shook his head before continuing in a falsetto, “Are we there yet? I have to potty. Mommmmm….”
“Man, shut the fuck up and find us a pisser.” Aiden curled his lip in a snarky grin before pushing his knees into the back of Dominic’s seat.
“Fuck around, asshole, it’s your truck. I won’t sweat the small stuff if you make me wreck it.”
“Shit, I’ve seen you drive through a hail of bullets. You can handle a little jostling of your ass.” Closing his eyes, he settled back against his seat.
“Oh hell, Westbrook is gonna jostle my ass.” Dominic continued to fuck with Aiden.
“You wish, fuckface.” Aiden tried to sound grouchy, but I could hear the laughter in his voice.
“I’m feeling the love here, boys,” Logan piped up.
“Boys? Who you callin’ boy? I got a yardful of dick, a bucketful of balls, and enough hair on my ass to weave an Indian blanket. So who the hell you calling boy?” One eye peeked open as Aiden spoke.
Logan slapped the side of his head repeatedly. “Bad visual! Bad visual! Get it out!”
Dominic had been taking a drink from his water bottle and laughed so hard, I thought he was going to shoot water out of his nose or choke to death. Coughing, he glanced at Logan in the rearview mirror, “At least you haven’t been mooned by it yet.”
Aiden chuckled. “There’s plenty of time. Don’t you worry. Now, for real, I’m about to piss in your water bottle if we don’t stop soon.”
As Dominic hit the turn signal for the next exit, I found myself grateful for the three of them. There weren’t a lot of people a guy could count on to be there at the drop of a hat. To have three was a fucking blessing.
Sending up another prayer to the big guy upstairs, I both thanked him and begged him to let Poppy and my baby be safe.
“Lightning In The Sky”—Devour The Day
Approximately eight hours earlier
“Poppy! Wake up! Come on, please, wake up!” Eyelids that weighed a ton prevented me from fully waking. The emotional roller coaster I’d ridden last night had drained me. Which would explain why I thought Lucas was talking to me again as I lay curled up on my closet floor.
“Mmm, Lucas, I’m tired. I’ll get up in a li’l bit. Juss a few more minutes.” Even to my own ears, my voice sounded mumbly as I tried to think. I was so damn sleepy, though.
“No. Poppy. Get. Up.”
“Mm-mm.”
“Poppy, you need to get up and get out of the house. Hey! You need to get up so you can go check on the waving man. Remember, he’s all alone in that camper.”
“Camper.”
“Yes, in his camper. Come on, get up now.” What I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around in my half-awake state was that Lucas was in my closet talking to me about the waving man. He’d always said he must be crazy. “Poppy, it’s not supposed to be your time, but if you don’t get up….”
“Wait. Lucas?” Eyes that felt glued shut tried to peel open to see if what my mind was telling me was true. Rubbing my eyes, I blinked a few times and looked around. Even though it was pitch-black in the closet and I was still half asleep, I knew I was alone.
Disappointment hovered in my heart as my mind woke fully. Accepting it had only been a dream hurt.
My hand rested on my belly as my little munchkin decided to make her presence known. Rolling and kicking, she definitely made me aware she was awake, too. Maybe that’s what actually woke me.
One thing my dream did make me realize was, if the hurricane had passed, I should go check on the old man I had dubbed “the waving man.” Hefting myself over to my hands and knees to work my way up, I had to pause as I kneeled with one knee on the ground and one up.
“Lordy, little girl, you gotta quit pushing up on my diaphragm so I can breathe!” This pregnancy was making me feel like an out-of-shape old woman. “You’re killing me, Smalls!”
After I was finally able to stand, I walked out to my still-dark living room. A small flash light cut a narrow path in front of me. It took me a minute to realize it was no longer nighttime, it was just the shutters over the windows making things dark. Going to my front door, led by the feeble light it let in, I peeked through the glass center window.
It was still lightly raining and gloomy, but the wind didn’t seem as bad. Glancing at my watch, I saw it was well after the time they’d predicted the hurricane would hit.
“Crap. The generator!” Rushing out to the garage, I opened the side door for ventilation, started the generator up, and ran the extension cord into the kitchen to plug in the fridge. Opening the door just a crack, I was relieved to feel it was still slightly cool in there. The light also came on, so I knew the generator was doing its job. Quickly, I closed it again and returned to the garage after grabbing my keys from the hook.
Snagging my purse from the bench, just in case, I stepped into the garage. Detaching the garage door from the opener, I struggled to raise the overhead door. A gust of wind blew rain into my face.
“Dammit!” Wiping my face with my hand, I climbed in my car, tossed my purse in the passenger seat, and started my baby up. After backing out, I debated leaving my garage door open so I wouldn’t get soaked, but knowing it would let all the water blow into my garage, I braved the storm and closed it.
Moving as fast as my awkward body would let me, I waddled back to my car and closed the door. “Great. I look like a drowned rat.” Closing the cosmetic mirror with a sigh, I backed out of the driveway and headed down the road.
Dodging debris in the road, I picked my way out of the neighborhood. Most of the damage I saw appeared to be minor, but it was hard to say just driving by. Mostly there were downed tree limbs and shingles blown off. Water filled the shallow drainage ditches, threatening to spill over into the road.
If it rained much more, flooding was going to be a problem. Thankful my house sat on a slightly elevated section of the housing area, I continued my slow drive to get to Woodbine Road.
The ditches were running with water out on the main road and resembled little whitewater rivers.
I didn’t know what made me think about it, but I remembered I hadn’t called Levi back last night. Pushing the voice command button, I told it to call Levi.
When it told me there was no phone connected, I realized I must have left it sitting on the counter last night
. “Dammit. It’s okay. I’ll call him as soon as I get home. This won’t take long.” I wasn’t sure who I thought was listening to me. The baby must’ve been sucking my brains out again.
Passing the white church on the right, I slowed to pull into the gravel driveway that led up to the fifth-wheel camper. My wipers continued to steadily thump in their effort to push the rain off so I could see.
Underneath the nose of the trailer, I saw a generator. From the puffs of exhaust I could make out through the rain, it looked like it was running. A glance at the skies told me it didn’t appear the rain was going to stop anytime soon. Looked like I was getting soaked again.
Ugh. Why didn’t I grab an umbrella? Then again, with that wind, it would probably just get blown away.
“Oh, well. I’m already wet.” Making a waddling dash to the door, I banged on it as hard as I could. At first I thought maybe he was gone but then the door opened. The wind caught it and it would have knocked me to the ground had I not been holding the little fold-out railing.
“Girly, what are you doing out in this? Get in here!”
Praying he wasn’t a serial killer, I climbed the steps and pulled the door closed behind me. No sooner had I stepped in than a giant of a dog shoved its cold nose in my hand.
“Nita! Leave the girl be.” He shuffled into the small living area and the big white dog lumbered along behind him. Moving slow, he lowered himself to a recliner. “Well, come on in. Sit down.”
He’d been inviting me, but when he said it, the dog sat next to him and turned its enormous head toward him with its big tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth. His hand reached out to scratch the massive beast on the head and I swear that thing smiled at him. Accepting his offer, I carefully lowered myself to the small couch. Silently, I prayed I’d be able to get my fat ass back up off it.
“I know you don’t know me, other than me driving past in my car. I’m Poppy. I’m sorry to barge in on you, but I was worried about you here in your camper with the hurricane and all. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
The man’s weathered face lit with a grin.
“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. I’m Tom and this here, as you probably heard, is Nita. As you can see, we’re good. Power went out a couple of hours ago after the hurricane swept through, but the generator is humming away. Ain’t gonna lie, this ol’ camper was a rockin’ and I thought maybe we were going ass over elbows a few times. But as you can see, we weathered it pretty good.”
His eyes were a faded blue and crinkled so much at the corners when he smiled, I could barely see them. Just as I was about to answer him, a loud alarm started to beep.
Sitting on the counter was a battery-operated radio. The alarm was followed by an announcement for a tornado warning. My heart started racing when I heard it was for our area and that a funnel had been spotted a few miles away.
“Mr. Tom, we need to get you out of here. You may have weathered the hurricane in this—by the grace of God. But it’ll be no match for a tornado. We should probably move you to a safer place.”
Concern etched his face as he listened to the warning. “But I have Nita. Those shelters aren’t too keen on a dog her size. I can’t leave her. She’s all I’ve got.”
“Then we’ll lay a blanket across my back seat and she can ride there. I’ll just take you back to my house with me. But we need to leave now.” Struggling, I had to rock a few times to get enough momentum to stand.
“You don’t even know me, girly. I’m not very good company. I’ve been told numerous times, I’m a grouchy old fart. And that’s putting it mildly. That’s why I stand out there and wave at everyone. I’m tryin’ my darnedest to not be grouchy… and to maybe make people smile. Are you sure you want me to go with you?” He’d stood as well.
At my crooked grin and nod, he grabbed a ball cap off the small table next to him. As he situated it on his head, I saw the embroidered design declaring him a Vietnam Veteran. It clutched my breath in my chest to know he’d survived that horrific war and yet here he was all alone and living in an RV.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Come on.” Tipping my head in the direction of the door, I waited while he climbed the short staircase to what must be the bedroom. He came back with a big quilt wadded up in his arms. As he clipped a leash on Nita, I carefully descended the stairs. After I reached the ground, I raised my hands for the quilt.
Carrying it to the car, I leaned the driver seat up and spread it on the back seat the best I could, trying to maneuver with my belly. This was proof I was going to have to give up my car before the baby got here. I wanted to cry thinking about it, but I pushed the thought to the back of my head. Stepping back, I made room for the now wet dog to get in the back seat.
“Load up, Nita.” At his command, the dog hopped in and lay down on the quilt. Shaking my head in amazement, I made sure he made it safely around the car and got in the passenger seat. The wind was whipping around us and small pieces of debris were hitting my arms and my face. As fast as I could, I sat down and shut the door. After I was situated, I buckled up as he did, and carefully turned around.
The skies were a hideous yellow-green as I pulled out onto Woodbine. The tips of the tall trees on either side of the road blew back and forth in the storm.
We didn’t make it very far before we were stopped by a man wearing a bright yellow raincoat, waving his hands. I cracked my window to hear what he had to say.
“There’s a big pine across the road. A truck is in the ditch because they swerved when they didn’t see it in the rain. You’ll have to turn around. Be careful!” He turned away and returned to help with whatever they were doing up there. Neither I nor Tom were in any condition to help, so I knew we needed to do as the man said and find another way around.
“Where are you trying to get to, Miz Poppy?” Tom turned to look at me as I gnawed on my lip in indecision.
“Up to the Plantation. I live in there.”
Nodding, he pointed behind us. “Go back and turn left at the first road. It wanders through a neighborhood but it will cut over to Chumuckla Highway and we can go up to five corners and come back down.”
Trusting him since I hadn’t ever been that way, I turned around. After all, I really didn’t want to go all the way down Woodbine to Highway 90 to come back up. That brought us too close to the water and I didn’t know what all we’d encounter down there.
Driving slow, both due to the rain and because I was watching for the turn, I gripped the wheel tight. I tried to breathe slow and deep, to control the panic swelling inside me.
Just as we turned the corner, we heard a roaring that I swore was a freight train. The problem was, there were no train tracks near us. “What the heck is that?”
“Poppy, that’s something not good. You better get to moving. We need to get somewhere safe ASAP. I would say we need to get in the ditch, but I don’t fancy drowning.” He motioned to where the ditches were overflowing onto the road.
A fast as I dared, we wove through the neighborhood, turning where he told me to turn and praying we would make it through there safely. “The highway should be right up there.” He pointed. I huffed out a huge sigh of relief when I saw the stop sign ahead.
“Okay. Well, we made it this far—” Just about fifty feet up the road, Tom grasped my arm. His breaths were coming in gasps and I thought he was having a heart attack on me. Taking my foot off the gas, I flicked my gaze his direction.
Face white as a sheet, he was looking off to the left and his hand was flapping and pointing. Following the direction of his eyes, I noticed the break in the trees where a few tall pines had fallen. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what was concerning. It was the ugly dark funnel stretching down from high in the sky.
“Sweet Mary, mother of God.” I swerved off onto a driveway on the right side of the road, and we watched, frozen in fear, as the undulating funnel moved slowly toward us. It was an eerie but mesmerizing dance. As I was saying a prayer for the good Lord to
spare us, I held on to the steering wheel with white knuckles.
So many things ran through my head. Chastisement for being an idiot by leaving my house and endangering my baby was foremost in my mind. I was so, so stupid. Why had I let some dumb dream make me believe I needed to get in my car and drive away from safety to try to rescue someone I didn’t even know? Someone who was fine and dandy. Sadness enveloped me at the realization that I wouldn’t get a chance to talk to Levi one last time. Tears welled in my eyes at the thought of us never being a family. Regret consumed me that I hadn’t gone with my mom and John when they asked.
Then, faster than you could blink, it sucked back up into the clouds. “Well, fu—I mean, whoa.” The face that was once white was flushed with embarrassment at his near slip of a cuss word.
“It’s okay. You could have said it.” Laughter driven by sheer adrenaline burst from my lips. “Oh. My. God. I cannot believe that just happened.”
“We better get while the getting’s good.” I couldn’t have agreed more. Pulling back onto the road, I continued until I reached the five-way intersection where the lights were all flashing red.
Taking a left, I proceeded down the road to my neighborhood. As I turned into the entrance, I realized it was worse than when I left. There were more branches and garbage in the road. It took serious skill to avoid everything. I approached the final curve to where my house sat in a slight cul-de-sac, and slammed on the brakes.
“Oh my God. Oh. My. God! No. No, no, no, no.”
“Poppy?” Tom questioned.
Opening my car door, I used it to pull myself upright and step out into the rain—and then my knees nearly gave out. Eight steps to the front of my car was as far as I got. In front of me was a gaping swath of splintered wood, furniture broken like it was constructed of nothing but toothpicks, branches, trees, and clothes.
Where my house should have been was nothing but rubble. Hysterical sobs shook me and burst from my lips. Blindly, I moved forward to climb over the tree lying across the road. When a large white blur shot in front of me and leaned on my knees, my forward movement halted.
Make Music With Me Page 23
