“This is not good,” I note, reprising my role as Captain Obvious. “How close is it to eleven?”
“You’re the one with the phone,” she retorts.
“Oh, yeah.” I shake my head with half a snorted chuckle, trying not to let the flooded beach change my optimistic outlook regarding our chances of making it through the night. The main shelter, the cabin and the restrooms are in the center of the island—and yes, I can call it an island now that the bridge is flooded. The water has a long way to go before it reaches any of those buildings. It hasn’t even hit the equipment building yet, and it’s not raining currently, so hopefully—
“I don’t know how much rain we’ve gotten, but even after the tide goes back out, all the water from the mainland is going to drain into the creeks that feed the bay and eventually dump out here. You know that, right?” she questions. I can’t see her face in the dark, but I know any smile she was wearing earlier has long vanished.
I pull my phone up, the screen so bright it burns my eyes for a second. “It’s not even 10 o’clock yet. We have over an hour till high tide. You’re right, it could get worse, but there are still several yards to go before it reaches the building closest to the beach.”
“We don’t know how bad it is on the other side though, near the bridge. We probably need to check that out too,” she argues. She turns to hike back up toward the equipment building. “We can get the keys to the barn, I think. They should be in Ben’s office, in the cabin. We might need every one of those canoes and kayaks once it’s light enough.”
“Let’s go see what the guys found out about the generator,” I suggest as we reach the pole barn. She passes me, huffing an “okay,” but I grab her wrist and pull her back to my side.
“Ouch, what’s that for?” she growls, jerking her arm back from me.
“Sorry, I—” I didn’t mean to grab her like that, it’s just—
I wish we were still dancing.
“Brynne…” I love the way her name sounds on my tongue.
She’s quiet for a moment, and all I can hear is the wind whipping around us like a frantic, manic ghost. “Chris…” she finally echoes back when I can’t seem to articulate what I want to say.
I want to say so many things—to thank her for being here with me, for the dance, for the kiss. I want to tell her how badly I want to kiss her again, to hold her, to strip those wet clothes off her…
I choose not to say a word. Instead, I wrap my arms around her, feeling the warmth of her body soak into mine as I pull her to me. My lips crash into hers as the wind drowns out the furious beats of our hearts. She tastes so sweet, so delicious…I don’t care about wind or rain or generators or bridges or cell phones. I don’t want to think about emergencies or fifty stranded people relying on us to get them to safety. I just want to see where this goes, what might happen if we take what’s happening between us right at this moment and set it loose in a chaos-free environment, one that’s warm and dry and safe. Will it grow? Will it flourish?
She pulls away after a few lingering nibbles to my neck. “Chris, I—” She pauses for a moment, and though we can’t really see each other in the dark, I know she’s looking into my eyes. “We need to go. They’re counting on us.”
I nod and take her hand in mine. “Let’s do this.”
I still feel the vibration of Chris’s lips on mine as we make our way toward the cabin. I tell him I’m going to duck in and check on Mrs. Wilson while he finds the guys. He nods and reluctantly begins to head off in the other direction, but not before he pulls me toward him again and presses another kiss to my cheek.
So, I guess this is happening, huh?
I make my way inside the cabin and find Sonnet’s parents sitting in the living room on the primitive furniture. Olivia is practically sitting on her husband’s lap, and she has a huge quilt wrapped around them both. Well, geez, make yourselves comfortable, I think with a laugh. She jerks her head up as soon as she notices my presence.
“How’s your mother?”
“She’s asleep now, finally,” Sonnet’s mother whispers. “I don’t want to wake her up.”
“No breathing issues? She’s not complaining of pain?”
“Not anymore,” Tom interjects.
From his tone alone, my brows shoot up into my hairline. “What do you mean by that? Did you give her more Tylenol?”
“Not exactly,” Olivia answers, looking up to give her husband a sheepish grin.
“What did you give her?” I try to keep my voice calm, but I’m not happy that my patient was given anything more than a glass of water without my authorization.
And then I smell it. I don’t know why it took a full minute for the smell to waft in from the bedroom and slap me across the face, but it’s all reefer madness up in here.
“Did you guys give her pot?!” I’m all squinting, brows furrowed, shaking my head in disbelief.
“Best pain medicine I know of,” Tom retorts, “and dare I say it made her nearly tolerable!”
“Tom!” Olivia gasps. She turns to me, “Sorry, I know it probably wasn’t what you would have chosen, but you didn’t come back, so we—”
“We took matters into our own hands,” Tom finishes her sentence.
Are you freakin’ serious right now? They are blaming ME not coming back fast enough? It’s been like thirty minutes! I just can’t even with this. I shake my head and hope nothing comes of this when she gets admitted to the hospital and they find THC in her blood. I decide I better get the hell out of the cabin before I end up with a contact high.
“Come and get me if you need me,” I tell them. “I’ll be in the main building.”
Olivia giggles and returns her head to her husband’s chest. I see his hand move under the blanket, presumably to her thigh, and that’s enough, my eyes need bleached now. I’m pretty sure they are going to make out on my brother’s couch. Ugh.
I don’t have to go far to find Chris and the other guys. They’re all huddled on the porch of the cabin like they’re just waiting for me to emerge.
“How is she?” Jack questions.
I debate whether or not to share that Sonnet’s grandmother is stoned. I decide to keep that tidbit of information to myself for now. “She’s asleep right now, thank goodness.”
“Good to hear,” Chris says, then the smile slides right off his face. “We have some bad news about the generator.”
“Oh.” As if to punctuate his statement, the wind picks up a huge branch from the ground and sends it crashing into the side of the main building right before our eyes. It’s not just a little twig, either, but something big enough to cause damage. If it had hit a window, it would have broken it for sure.
“Yeah, there’s either no generator, or it’s locked in the equipment building with the canoes and kayaks,” Meric explains.
Shit. “Okay.” I buy myself some time to scan my memory for any mention Ben has made of a generator. I can’t believe he doesn’t have one. I refuse to believe it, in fact.
“Has anyone checked their phones recently?” Drew shouts as he heads over to the cabin from the main building.
We all immediately whip our phones out, and one by one shut them down again, shaking our heads in defeat.
“Negative,” Chris says, stuffing his back into his pocket. “So can we get keys to this other building?”
I let out a deep sigh. I think the wind is getting worse, which doesn’t even seem possible. I don’t know where the peninsula’s electricity comes from. The mainland I guess, but where electricity comes from is not something I spend a lot of time dwelling on. First world problems, huh?
“I wish I could call my brother and ask, but obviously that’s not possible. So I guess I will try to find them in his office. You guys wait out here. I don’t want to wake Mrs. Wilson up.”
They all give me somber nods before I head back inside the cabin, trying to shield my eyes from the spectacle of Sonnet’s parents making out on the sofa in the living room as I quick
ly step into Ben’s office, which is just off the small but functional kitchen. The trees are shaking so violently, I feel like one could be uprooted at any moment. We could be plunged into total darkness at any moment. I want to plug my phone in just in case—the battery is at forty percent—but I keep thinking if the power goes out, I don’t know if I will even be able to find it. The other thought popping up is why on earth is there no landline out here? Damn it, Ben!
I tiptoe back out of the office and into the bedroom where Mrs. Wilson is slumbering. She almost looks angelic lying there, which seems like a miracle. I fumble through my bag for my phone charger and then tiptoe back into the office, where I plug that baby in to soak up as much power as possible. I sit at my brother’s desk, placing my elbows on the surface just for a moment to try to channel my brother. What would Benji do? I ask myself, momentarily massaging my temples as if that will help my psychic abilities.
I open the drawers all along the left side of the old metal desk, cringing when the bottom drawer lets out a loud, ear-splitting metal-on-metal creak. Ugh! All I see are manila folders hanging in bigger green files. There’s a cabinet across from the desk, so I check that next. A door opens up on the end, and inside are hooks with various keys. I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot! The only problem is none of them are marked. Crap.
I scoop up the entire handful of keys, six or seven sets altogether, and dash out of the office as quietly as I can, leaving my phone behind. Chris, Meric and Jack are still waiting for me on the porch, but Drew, Sam and Luke are gone.
“They took Drew back inside,” Jack explains to my nod.
I hold out my hands to show the assortment of keys. “Well, this is what I found.”
“We’ll just have to try them all,” Meric says. “Why don’t the three of us go, Brynne? You can go on back inside the reception if you want.”
“Hell, no,” I insist. “This is my brother’s property, and if anyone gets hurt, I want to be there to help. I’m going too.”
Chris flashes Jack and Meric a look that warns them it’s best not to argue with me. See, he has learned a thing or two about me in this short amount of time!
Without another word, the four of us take off for the pole barn where the equipment is stored, which is behind and to the left of the cabin, where Chris and I just were maybe twenty minutes prior. I am not sure if he has told anyone about the flooding on that side of the peninsula yet. Meric has a flashlight, and the beam is bouncing back and forth as he jogs a short distance ahead of us.
Part of me regrets leaving my phone charging in Ben’s office. What if he tries to call me to update me on Harmony’s situation? On the other hand, a dead phone isn’t going to do me any good either. And the way the wind is blowing, I have this terrible feeling we aren’t going to have power too much longer. A tiny part of me wants to hunt down this friend of Sonnet’s at NOAA and beat the crap out of her. Would that be wrong?
We reach the pole barn, and I give all the sets of keys to Chris except the one I plan to try first. Meric trains the flashlight on shiny metal padlock holding the two sides of the barn doors together. I jam the first key in the lock, but it doesn’t turn. No go. There’s another key on that ring, so I try it too. No such luck.
A deafening crack sounds through the high-pitched whine of the wind, followed by the skies opening up again and dumping what feels like gallons and gallons of frigid water down on our heads. My soaked hair, which has become more and more unraveled from my updo as the events of this evening have unfolded, flops down into my face. I grunt, hand the wrong keys to Jack, then loosen the ponytail holder securing what was once my beautiful wedding hairstyle. I twist my hair into a knot and wrap the ponytail holder around it. Isn’t there a meme about facing adversity that advises throwing your hair into a messy bun, turning on some heavy metal music, and dealing with it? That’s me right now. Minus the heavy metal music, of course, but I swear with my Metallica t-shirt on, I can very nearly channel James, Lars, and the rest of the band.
My body is betraying me, starting to shiver as I try the next set of keys. There’s very little awning off the front of the barn, and no covered porch like the rest of the buildings, so we’re all getting soaked. Soaked is better than drowning or dead, I tell myself as I try to jiggle the key into the hole. Set #2 is also a fail.
I try the third and fourth to no avail. The fifth one slides right in and turns, and in seconds I have the padlock unhooked. Chris rips it off the lock, turns it and slides the heavy door open. We all rush in out of the pouring rain, Meric and Jack shining their flashlights up to the rafters and down each row of kayaks and canoes. There are also volleyball nets, a huge trash can full of balls, a few soccer goals, traffic cones, an entire wall of oars and paddles, and trunks and trunks of life jackets.
“We may need those,” Chris shouts over the wind.
There’s also a workbench set up with a long pegboard containing every tool you could imagine. And there are ropes, hoses, bungee cords, tarps, tents, and a host of other things I can’t even identify. But I don’t see a generator anywhere. Not that I even know for sure what a generator looks like or how to use one, but I do know it’s what we need right now, and I’m trying hard to keep my heart from racing at the thought of not having one.
I just thought for sure Ben would have this place outfitted for any manner of emergency….
“I don’t see one, do you?” Jack shouts from down one of the aisles.
“Nope,” Meric shouts back. “But you said your brother hadn’t had any overnight campers here yet, right?”
“No, he opened last summer and just did the canoe and kayak rentals and some guided tours of the bay. I think he built the kitchen because he’s hosting some camps this summer, but they haven’t started up yet.”
“Guess he needs to add generator to his shopping list,” Chris suggests. We all meet in front of the doors. The battery on Meric’s flashlight already looks like it’s fading.
“Let’s go raid the supplies shed for all the batteries we can find,” Jack says. “At least then we’ll have light. Hopefully it won’t get too cold tonight.”
Chris wraps his arm around me. “Well, we have body heat if nothing else,” he whispers in my ear, but the sound is almost swallowed up by another huge gust of wind that shakes the entire building like an earthquake.
I think we’re all feeling let down as we trek back to the main building. We are almost to the cabin when I realize there aren’t any lights on in there or in the main building, and the big floodlight in front of the restroom facilities is out too. As we grow a little closer, I realize I can’t hear the thump of the bass from the DJ station. Everything is dark, silent, and creepy.
Eighteen
I push open the back door to the main building, and the buzz of voices coming from the main room filters into my ears. Whew, that’s good. It was so quiet from outside, I was starting to wonder if something horrible had happened. It’s probably time for another stay calm and don’t panic speech.
I was hoping it was going to be one of those power outages where the lights flicker and go out for a minute, then pop back on like nothing happened. But, alas, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case. “Everyone alright in here?”
“Where have you been?” someone shouts in the dark across the room.
“We’ve been gathering supplies,” I answer.
“Is there a generator?” someone else questions; I believe it was Drew’s father.
“My flashlight’s batteries died,” someone else says. I think that was Sam.
I had sent Jack and Meric to the supplies shed to gather up as many batteries as they could find. I feel Brynne beside me, even though she’s not saying a word. She’s leaving this up to me.
“Okay, everyone, as you’ve noticed, the power has gone out. Has anyone checked their phones lately?”
“I just checked mine!” someone shouts. I think it’s the DJ. He waves his screen in the air, and the blue light illuminates the space around his booth.
“Still no signal.”
“Anyone else?”
A few people fumble in the darkness for their phones, which may have been turned off and charging. One by one, I hear murmurs of “no signal,” “nope, not working,” and “damn it.”
The kitchen doors swing shut. “This place has an electric well pump, doesn’t it?” I recognize the caterer’s voice.
“I think so,” Brynne answers from beside me.
“Yeah, we don’t have any water.”
Great. That’s just lovely.
“Okay, everyone, stay calm. I know it’s dark, but Meric and Jack are on their way with more flashlights and batteries.” As if on cue, the two come barreling through the back door with buckets of supplies. They walk around the room distributing batteries and flashlights to everyone who needs them.
“So, what are we supposed to do now?” a male voice pipes up. I want to say it’s the bartender, but I’m not 100% certain.
“We’re going to hunker down and wait for morning,” I answer. “Just make yourselves comfortable, and let Brynne or me know if you need anything.”
“We’ve been passing out water bottles and making sure everyone has food or whatever else they need,” Claire pipes up, suddenly beside me. The rest of the bridesmaids are huddled around her.
“Thanks for that, ladies. We appreciate it.” I shoot them all a smile, but I’m not sure they can see it in the dark.
“Brynne, you know we have a couple of diabetics, right?” Claire questions.
“Yes, as soon as I go check on Mrs. Wilson again, I’ll come back to evaluate the diabetics and anyone else with medical conditions,” Brynne answers, then turns to me. “There’s probably some more bedding stashed in the cabin if you want to help me get it?”
“Of course. I’ll be right there; I’m just going to walk around and check on everyone first.”
I hear her start to say something to Claire and the rest of the ladies, but I’m pulled away by Meric and Jack. This whole thing still feels surreal, like some crazy dream I’m going to snap out of at any moment. My best friend got married; I kissed a beautiful ER doctor, and I got stranded with fifty other people on a tiny strip of land out in the middle of nowhere. It’s definitely not how I thought the weekend would go—except for the best friend getting married part. I definitely think there could be a book in my future about this crazy weekend.
Badge Bunny Page 17
