Buddy pointed toward the kitchen. “Everyone back to the freezer.”
The next gust of wind shook the building. All eyes shot to the ceiling in terror a moment before everyone raced to the back of the bar.
Reese stayed in his place.
“Reese, now!” Buddy ordered.
“Lily,” he gasped out.
“She’ll be fine.”
“I need to get to her.” Before Buddy could get a grasp on him, Reese raced out the door and into the storm. Rain beat on him as he plowed down the street towards the library soaking every part of him. Pieces of debris pelted at him. Lightning lit up the sky around him and thunder shook the ground. The wind sounded like a freight train, growing louder with every step he took. His heart was stampeding in his chest as he wrapped his fingers around the handle of the library door.
“Reese!” Lily’s scream cut through the shriek of the storm around them.
Reese forced his gaze up through the elements to find her alone in the library. The branches of a very large maple had shattered two of the great glass windows.
Her brown eyes were wide as she looked paralyzed with fear. “I can’t open the door to the basement.”
Reese didn’t answer. He raced across the room stopping long enough to tuck her against him, using his body to keep her sheltered. He let go of her so he could lock his hands around the old brass knob of the basement door and pull it. It didn’t budge. He dug his heels into the wood floor and yanked again, feeling the lock give a little.
Lily screamed as another limb crashed into the library, toppling three or four bookcases in the process.
Reese tugged her to the other side of him and pulled with all his might. The door popped free, the dark, damp staircase inviting them inside. He didn’t waste a moment. Grasping her hand in his, he led them down the stairs, slamming the door behind them.
The storm raged above them as they huddled in the corner of the basement. He wrapped himself around her to comfort her and keep her safe. She shook like a leaf in his arms. He shivered along with her, part from fear and part from his cold, soaked clothes. He could hear her soft voice praying. Reese couldn’t remember the last time he stepped into a church. About the only time he prayed was when he was about to step into the cage. Hugging her tighter to him, he prayed along with her.
Suddenly, the pelting rain and the roar of the wind stopped. Together, they lifted their heads up.
“Is it over? Just like that?” Lily whimpered.
Reese’s heart was in his throat. “No, baby. We’re in the eye of the storm. Just hang tight to me. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
The wind and returned moments after he spoke as if prompted by his words. Reese gently rocked Lily in his arms. It comforted him as much as he hoped it did her. If he hadn’t come to the library and found her—he shuddered at the thought of losing her in this storm.
Slowly, the wind grew quieter and the rain let up. Reese stared at the faint ray of light that glimmered through the crack of the door. He slipped his phone from his back pocket not finding a signal. Is it safe to go upstairs?
“Reese!” It was Buddy’s voice coming from above.
Reese’s head popped up. “We’re in the basement!”
“Hang on. There’s a table pinning the door closed. Jenny! Molly! Help me!”
Reese nudged Lily to her feet and took her hand. They carefully made their way through the dark, reaching out to find stray objects. The grunts and scrapes outside the door along with the sliver of light led their way through the basement. Just as they reached the bottom set, the door was wrenched open.
Buddy, Jenny and Molly stood at the top, all of them soaked to the bone.
Molly shook her head sadly.
“What is it?” Lily questioned.
Molly didn’t answer but instead, stepped out of the way.
As they reached the top step, Lily gasped.
Reese’s heart fell at the sight of the library.
Bookshelves were overturned and books were scattered everywhere. Limbs of trees littered the floor. Nearly every window was shattered. The old antique clock that hung over the hallway to Lily’s office, the one that hung there since the day the library opened, was now lying on the floor in pieces. The two old oak doors were splinters outside the building.
“Lily,” Buddy whispered in concern.
“Everything can be fixed or replaced.”
Reese could hear the sob in Lily’s voice. “The most important thing here was safe.” Reese squeezed her hand encouragingly.
Lily blinked back tears as she gazed up at him. “Thanks to you.”
He smiled at her before turning his gaze at Buddy. “This couldn’t have just been wind.”
“It wasn’t. On the onset, they’re predicting it was a F-3. The tornado cut a path right through Braden.”
“The house?”
“I haven’t checked but the Sheriff said it was all right. The tail swooped down over the library then slashed across going east three blocks past our place. It flattened nearly every house on Elm stre—” Buddy halted as his eyes widened in panic.
Reese’s heart seized in his chest. “Dad…”
Lily put her hands over her mouth.
Both men sprinted from the library with the women on their heels. Rain was still coming down but Reese couldn’t feel it. Just another block. Just one more block…His feet stopped as his eyes fell on the rubble that had once been his childhood home. Shaking in fear, his voice trembled. “Dad!”
“Reese, your dad has lived in Iowa all his life. He’s probably in the basement,” Buddy assured him. The doubt in his voice betrayed his fear.
Reese charged into the debris, tossing siding and wood as he searched for his father. He aimed for where he remembered the basement door to be. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Buddy digging through the trash looking also. He reached for the arm of his dad’s old maroon recliner and yanked it aside.
A pale hand was nearly buried beneath the broken boards and siding. Tears stung Reese’s eyes. “Dad!” He tossed debris mindlessly to get Howard out. Buddy’s large hands joined his. The wet wood was slippery, making the job difficult, but it only took moments to clear the rubble. Reese only caught a glimpse of Howard’s ashen skin splotched with crimson streaks of blood before the volunteer rescuers swarmed in to take over. Reese struggled past them to get to his father but was stopped by two strong arms. He fought the grip that held him. “Let me go!”
“Reese, let the men work,” Buddy demanded patiently.
Reese watched in dread with the falling rain being the only sound in his ears. One rescue worker looked at his partner and shook his head sadly. The other stood then carefully stepped through the mess to the gurney left on the sidewalk. He returned with a sheet. Together, the paramedics draped the sheet over Howard’s body.
“No!” Reese screamed through clenched teeth.
Buddy held him tighter.
Soon, he felt another pair of arms wrap around him, ones far gentler. Reese didn’t even look at who now held him. He just buried his face into the curve of Lily’s neck and cried.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tight.
Through his tear blurred eyes, Reese gazed down at the ground. In the dim light cast by the flashing lights of the ambulance and fire truck, he caught sight of Lily’s feet. They were standing in small mounds of broken metal and glass. She wasn’t wearing shoes. He could see the cuts oozing with blood, streaking down her feet as it mixed with the falling rain. “Lily!” He scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of the wreckage. He plopped her down on the first safe piece of grass he could find. “Where are your shoes?”
“I couldn’t make it through all that in my pumps. I needed to be beside you to help you.”
Reese dropped to his knees beside her, gently cradling her slashed feet in his hands as his sorrow quickly turned to terror. “Baby, your feet.” He ripped his shirt off over his head and tor
e it in two. He carefully wrapped each foot. “We’re going to have to see Doctor Hazlet. I think you need stitches.”
She nodded with him as she winced at his touch. Both of them startled as bodies swarmed around them. A couple large hands shoved Reese aside, then blocked him from Lily.
“What the fuck?” Reese demanded.
The rescue worker glanced back at him. “Please let us treat the young woman, sir.”
“The young woman is my girlfriend. I can take care of her.”
“So, what field of medicine are you in, sir?”
Reese frowned. “None.”
“Then let us do our job, please.”
Reese watched helplessly as the paramedics examined Lily’s feet. He turned as a hand touched his shoulder. He looked up to find the sheriff beside him.
“Reese, I’m sorry for your loss. We need to get a statement from you and to talk about your wishes for your father’s body.”
“I need to stay with Lily,” Reese protested.
“It’ll only be a moment.”
Reese rose to his feet and followed the Sheriff a few feet across the sidewalk. He wiped the tears and rain from his eyes. He barely heard a word the Sheriff said, nodding like he was listening. He turned back to check on Lily only to find her on a stretcher being wheeled to the waiting ambulance. “Excuse me,” Reese gasped the words out while racing to the vehicle. “Lily!” he shouted.
He barely made out a wave from Lily before the door slammed shut. Tears burned his eyes. His dad was dead. His woman was gone, being whisked to the hospital without him. He was left beside the wreckage of his childhood home in the pouring rain. He never felt so alone.
~* * * *~
Debris littered Braden from one end of town to the other. By some stroke of luck, nearly every structure survived the tornado’s wrath except a few homes on Elm Drive. Lily shuffled past the splintered wood and broken glass as she made her way down the street, a couple of Merryn’s chicken sandwiches tight in her hand. Merryn had given her a tight hug and instructions to take one of them to Reese.
She must have seen the exhaustion in Lily’s face because, before she could slip out of the bakery door, the woman wrapped her in another bear hug.
If she only knew the past few hours, I’ve been through.
Lily spent two hours in Waterloo having stitches sewn into her feet and a tetanus shot stuck in her arm. Once Molly and Jenny drove her home, she and Elijah fought through the damage at the library, sweeping up the shards of glass, boxing up books and putting them in the basement and carefully wrapping up the old clock, so it could be repaired. With every step, Lily saw her livelihood in tatters around her. But it was nothing compared to the single life lost in the storm. She brushed tears away over and over again, throughout the night. They weren’t for Howard Cooper but for his grieving son.
At three o’clock, Lily sent a sleepy Elijah home. She hunkered down in her office to get a couple of hours sleep before she went back to work. Just as her eyes fluttered closed, she was jolted back awake by the vibration of her phone. After reading the text, she jumped to her feet and hurried through the streets. Minutes later, she was drifting back to sleep in Reese’s bed wrapped tightly in his embrace, his face buried against her neck as he looked for comfort in her arms.
Lily lifted her head as she let go of her memories, her feet stopping at the edge of the curb.
Ground zero. The basement where Howard Cooper’s house once stood gaped open. Mementos of the lives lived in the house laid scattered among the rubble. In the middle of it all—stood Reese, his strong shoulders hunched in defeat. He wore thick canvas gloves to protect himself as he cleaned up the aftermath.
Lily tiptoed carefully through the mess, wincing with each step until she reached his side. “Merryn sent a sandwich for you,” she told him softly.
“I’m not hungry,” he murmured.
She gazed at him helplessly then turned to Buddy.
Tossing a couple of pieces of siding into a nearby dumpster, Buddy shook his head at her, silently telling her to drop it.
She sighed, then stepped her way back through to set the sandwiches on an overturned five gallon bucket.
“Lily, just stay there,” Reese ordered. “I don’t want you hurt anymore.”
“I just want to help.” She hated to see the pain in his brilliant blue eyes.
He peeled his gloves off his hands then made his way through the wreckage to her. He hugged her tight, burying his face in her hair. “Baby, you are helping. Being here, holding me, loving me. It’s the best help I could get.”
They held each other in silence for quite a while. Lily could feel her hair grow damp. Tears. She pulled away to smile at Reese, to show him just how much she loved him. Her grin died as she found her father standing behind them.
“Lily,” Reverend Dixon warned as he shot a glare at Reese. “Don’t you have a library to take care of?”
“It can wait,” Lily replied, her voice equally tense.
“You need to get back to your library. Now. You don’t belong here with him.” The Reverend nodded at Reese.
Lily forced a smile on her face for Reese. “I’ll be right back. I need to talk to my dad.” She kissed him on the cheek then hobbled to her father. Despite being smaller than him, she dragged him halfway down the sidewalk out of earshot of the other two men. She spun at him. “How dare you, Dad!”
“Lily, we’ve talked about this. Stay away from Reese Cooper or find a new home.”
“He just lost his father. Can’t you have a little compassion?”
“Howard Cooper deserved what he got. He was a drunk, lazy, carousing bum.”
Lily gaped at the Reverend. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. You’re a man of the cloth, Dad. You preach forgiveness but you condemn two men you don’t even know.”
“I know them well enough.”
Lily pointed down the street. “Go. Now. Kick me out if you must. Just remember, if you do I will move in with Reese. What will happen to your precious reputation then, Daddy?”
“You’re as bad as that boy, Lily.”
Her eyes narrowed. “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
Reverend Dixon snarled before he stormed down the street.
Lily took a deep breath then exhaled slowly to calm her quaking nerves. Her being upset was the last thing Reese needed. She turned back to find both men watching her quietly. She squared her shoulders and walked back to them.
Reese tugged her into his arms. “Is everything all right?”
“Of course it is.” Lily forced a smile on her face. “Right now, I’m worried about you. What can I do to help?”
“Nothing. Buddy and I are stopping for a while. He’s going to bring some guys to clean up. They’ll make quick work of it. There isn’t one thing of mine in all this mess. My dad threw my stuff out. I just need to walk away for a while and blow off steam.”
“Are we going back to the bar?”
“Buddy and I are going to the high school. We’re getting the keys to the wrestling room from Coach Gibbons. You’re going back to the library, your place, our place or where ever you want to go.”
Lily frowned. “Why can’t I go with you?”
“Reese, she’ll probably be all right,” Buddy chimed in. “It’s only pads. She’ll probably get bored.”
Reese shot a look at him. “No pads.”
Buddy shook his head. “You haven’t been cleared yet. Nope. I’m out.”
Reese chuckled uneasily. “Got news for you. I have been. I got cleared last week. I understand if you want out.”
“Never. I’m all in. I don’t want you to reinjure yourself.”
“I won’t. You’re not that good.”
Lily let out a huff to get their attention. “What are you two talking about? You’re cleared. What does that mean? You two are talking in a code I don’t understand.”
Reese rubbed her arms as he smiled gently. “Baby, go back to our place. Crawl i
nto bed. Take a nap. I’ll come join you in a bit.”
“No. I’m coming with.”
“It’s dangerous. It’s not a good idea.”
“I don’t care. I’ve been in the wrestling room. There’s nothing dangerous in there.”
“There’s about to be,” Buddy warned.
“Like what?” Lily demanded.
There was silence between the men. Finally Buddy spoke, “Reese, she’s smart. She’ll keep out of the way. And face it. She has to see this side of you sooner or later.”
“I know,” Reese replied weakly. He sighed. “Fine. Meet us at the high school in ten minutes. We have to run home to get something.”
“All right,” Lily agreed. She stood still as they journeyed down the street and didn’t move until they disappeared around the corner. She started her trek slowly to the school. Her thoughts raced as she turned Reese’s confession in her mind. The doctor cleared him for what? His next level of rehabilitation?
As she reached the steps of the high school building, she found Coach Gibbons waiting, a large ring of keys in his hand. He waved at her. “Hi, Lily. What brings you by here?”
“I’m meeting Reese and Buddy here. They said you’re letting them into the wrestling room.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t peg you as someone who enjoyed that sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing? I’m not sure what’s about to happen.”
Coach Gibbons slipped the lock into the door and twisted it, opening the door. “Well then, Miss Dixon, this will be an eye opener for you I’m sure.” He led her through the dark hallways of the school building towards the gymnasium. However, before they reached the cavernous room he took a sharp right. After a few more yards, he opened the wrestling room and ushered her inside.
Lily scanned the room, taking in the nearly empty space except for the thick mats on the floor.
“I’ll check back to see how the boys are doing in a bit.” The coach waved before he slipped out the door, leaving Lily alone.
She paced the room, hugging her arms around herself, as she waited. Jumping, she was startled as the door opened, she smiled as Reese and Buddy walked in, each of them now in t-shirts and gym shorts with large duffle bags slung over their shoulders.
The Heartbreaker (Fighting the Odds Book 1) Page 14
