I make the rounds, trying to not shine my flashlight in anyone’s eyes, but it’s hard not knowing exactly where everyone is sitting. It’s also amazing how stuffy it is in here with all of our body heat. I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about being cold tonight. Everyone seems to be in good spirits, thankfully, if not a little bored. Maybe Brynne and I can find some board games or decks of cards in the cabin. That would liven things up!
A glance down at my watch, which tells me it’s nearly 11 PM. It feels like it should be 3 AM by now with all the running around we’ve done. I think this is the first time I’ve stopped to think about how drenched I am. I wish I had other clothes to change into.
“Hey, is your brother about my size?” I question Brynne as we head over to the cabin. “Does he have any clothes in there? I’m still soaked.”
“I’m soaked too, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Besides he’s pretty skinny,” she says, looking me up and down as if to say I’m too big.
“Is that an insult?” I tease her, puffing out my chest. Yep, my shirt is totally drenched.
She laughs. “Not at all, you have a great body.”
And now my chest is swelling for other reasons. I really wish we could get a moment’s peace so Brynne and I could get back to where we were on the dance floor or down by the beach—basically anything but playing superheroes. Not that I mind doing my job, but I really did think I was going to be off duty this weekend!
The rain has let up a little, at least compared to when we were trying to unlock the barn with the equipment. The wind is still crazy strong, though. I can only hope and pray it dies down by morning, especially if we’re going to have to paddle out of here in canoes.
“So Sonnet’s parents were in here making out last time I checked,” she tells me as we step up onto the porch.
“Wow, okay. Didn’t need to know that!”
“At least you didn’t have to see it!”
“There’s something you should know about me, Brynne,” I tell her. “I’m a writer and an artist. As soon as words enter my mind, it takes me about 2.2 seconds to create a mental image with a scary amount of realism.”
“Is that why you choose to draw cartoon animals?” she fires back. “Is that what these mental images look like?” She laughs and pats me on the back. “By the way, I think Mrs. Wilson should be a skunk in your book about her.”
“Oh, there’s going to be a book about this weekend, alright,” I assure her.
“Oh yeah?” She stops just before going inside the cabin.
“Oh, definitely.” I cross my arms over my chest. I’m holding my flashlight to the side, and the edge of the light is reflecting off the side of the cabin and bouncing gently onto her features.
“Will I be in it?”
“Of course. You’re the best part of this weekend.” I know she can’t really see me, but I’m smiling.
“As long as I’m not a bunny,” she demands.
“Bunnies are awesome, but I already wrote a bunny story,” I remind her.
“Yeah, I know, it’s just that—” She stops mid-sentence. At first I think something else has happened, or someone is in the bushes listening to our conversation, but I can’t make out anything that might have interrupted her train of thought.
“What?” Maybe she’s about to reveal her deep dark secret to me? I lean forward, anxious to hear it.
“Well,” she begins, then swallows hard like she’s embarrassed to admit whatever it is she started to say.
“Just tell me, Brynne. I won’t laugh.”
“Promise?”
“Of course.” I pat her arm to reassure her, then follow it up with a kiss to her cheek. I nearly miss on account of the darkness, but manage to get half-cheek, half-hair.
“The nurses and other doctors at work call me a Badge Bunny,” she says quietly. I barely hear her over the wind.
“Badge bunny?” I try to hold in my surprise. “Is that someone who goes for cops?”
“You promised not to laugh!”
“I’m not laughing,” I insist. “Is that why you wouldn’t give me a chance?”
“Probably,” she sighs. “I just didn’t like them making fun of me—and yeah, after the fourth one, I figured it was time to give cops a rest. None of those relationships seemed to work out for me.”
“But now that you’ve gotten to know me, you feel differently?” I instantly regret asking that. It’s too much, too soon, and my heart is pounding with my desperation to take the question back. Maybe she didn’t hear me over the wind?
She laughs a bit uneasily. “I still barely know you,” she says. “But I don’t want to be a badge bunny anymore.”
“Well, I can promise you I won’t make you a bunny in my book; how about that?”
I think she nods and says okay, but another gust of wind whips around us and grabs the storm door right out of her hand, violently swinging it open, then slams it back against the door frame. She shrieks in surprise, then quickly pulls the door open again and jerks me inside after her.
My heart is still racing as I shine the flashlight to the left, and sure enough, Sonnet’s parents are sound asleep on the sofa. At least their clothes are on. From what I can tell. I shudder as another one of those frighteningly realistic images plagues my brain.
We silently pad through the house toward the bedroom. Passing the beam of the flashlight over the bed, we confirm Mrs. Wilson is still asleep and can just barely make out the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest. She seems fine.
Brynne motions for me to follow her into the hallway between the bedroom and kitchen and points to a closet. I shine the light on the handle, and she carefully opens it, then pulls out a huge stack of pillows and blankets. “Score!” she whispers, and I grin. Who thought we’d get so excited over bedding, but I guess that’s what tonight has come to.
Then she rifles through a cabinet in the kitchen, followed by a drawer. “Games and cards,” she says, collecting some boxes. “Let’s go.”
I carry the bedding, prepared to make a dash for it so they don’t get soaked by rain. She carries the cards and games. We head back into the main building which now looks like a refugee camp with flashlights turned up-end and focusing circles of brightness on the ceiling, and pillows, blankets, coats and people sprawled everywhere.
She makes a beeline for the corner where the rest of the bridal party is set up, including the bride and groom. “Hey guys, we brought blankets.”
“Sweet!” Drew exclaims. His arm is around Sonnet, and she’s leaning her head against his shoulder. “This is not the way I pictured spending our wedding night, but if I had to get stranded, at least it’s with you guys.”
“Awww, that’s sweet,” Claire remarks. Beside her, Jack chuckles his deep laugh.
“If your grandmother wasn’t hogging the bed in there, you guys coulda consummated your marriage in the cabin,” Sam posits.
“Ewww, shut up, will ya?” Sonnet elbows Sam, who is sitting next to her. “At least we’re married. I mean, that was my main goal for the day, and that was accomplished.” She shakes her head with a little laugh. “Could be worse.”
“It can always be worse,” I agree, sliding in next to Meric and Lindy. I pat the space in front of me after I cram a pillow behind my back. I don’t expect Brynne to comply, but she does, climbing right between my legs and lying back against me before covering us with a blanket. I know it’s silly, and I feel like I’m in high school again, but her sitting like that makes me all giddy inside.
“So, we’re just gonna sit here all night and wait?” Luke asks.
“I bet my husband is worried sick,” Karen interjects. “Wish I could get ahold of him.”
“Has anyone checked their phones lately?” Lindy questions. “My parents are probably worried too. But they’re also probably asleep.” She laughs.
“Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘weathering the storm?’ Or how about ‘this too shall pass?’” Claire, our resident self-he
lp expert asks. I want to say there are a couple of choice lessons from my picture books as well, but I’m not about to bring that up.
It’s like Brynne read my mind though. “Isn’t that what Sammy the Sea Turtle said?”
She’s sitting in front of me, so it’s not apparent she’s speaking to me. But as soon as the words come out of her mouth, there’s complete and utter silence. I feel like the groups around us also clammed up at precisely the same time.
Drew is the first to remark: “Sammy the who-what?”
“Oh,” she utters, as though she didn’t realize she’d said it out loud.
“Yeah, I wanna know who Sammy the Sea Turtle is,” Luke pipes up.
Shit. Come on, Brynne. Use that brilliant mind of yours to come up with something good…
She freezes.
Double shit.
Oh no. Why did I just say that? It totally came out of nowhere. I think I’m just so exhausted—physically and mentally—I didn’t even realize I said it out loud. Chris is squeezing the crap out of my knee; it feels like he’s going to pop it right out of my leg.
“Oh, it’s a character in a book I bought for my niece,” I explain, trying to recover. I told you guys about her, right?”
“New niece!” Claire exclaims. “How exciting! When was she born?”
Whew. I should have known all I needed to do was mention a baby, and the moms in the group would take it and run.
“Actually, she’s two. My brother and his wife just adopted her.”
“My husband and I adopted our two children,” Karen joins the conversation. “Adoption is such a beautiful thing! I’m so happy for you!”
“Thanks,” I answer, and Chris gives me a pat of approval on my thigh.
A bright blue light comes from across the room, and I swear the entire room hushes again. “Nope, no signal,” comes the verdict. I think it might have been the principal at Sonnet’s school.
“What time is it?” someone asks.
“11:23 PM,” comes the answer from the person who just turned on their phone.
There are a few grumbles, but no one says what I’m afraid everyone is thinking: we love you, Drew and Sonnet, but if we’d known your wedding was going to result in this, we would have RSVP’d our regrets!
“Oh, hey, I have games and decks of cards,” I break the silence.
Chris leans down and whispers in my ear, “Are you going to try to stay awake?”
I’m used to pulling all-nighters. As is he. But I’m not at work, and my body seems to know it. I guess it’s all the excitement and the rollercoaster of emotions I’ve been on, but this day feels like it’s been about 48 hours long, and it’s still going.
“I’m kind of torn. What about you?” I whisper back.
“I’m thinking of resting my eyes for a minute. It’s like those long winter nights when I’m working, and I can sort of doze off but still hear my radio. It’s quite the skill.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” I agree, chuckling. “I guess it won’t hurt to close our eyes for a few minutes. I’m sure everyone will let us know if we’re needed.”
“I’m sure they will,” he concurs.
He’s quiet for a moment, and I lean back against him. The gentle swell of his lungs moving air in and out lifts my head with every breath. It’s soothing, really, like being lulled to sleep on a boat just barely rocking in the waves. If you would have told me this morning that I’d end my night in his arms, I would have said you were a complete lunatic. But here we are.
“So if your secret isn’t the heavy metal music, and it’s not being called Badge Bunny…it must be something else,” he whispers in my ear. “I’m still going to figure it out.”
I can’t help it, but the rasp of his voice sends a shiver down my spine. Something is happening here, and I seem powerless against it. I’m helpless and hopeless when it comes to the long arm of the law. But I have to admit, both of those long, strong arms feel mighty good wrapped around me at the moment.
Nineteen
I jolt awake when someone taps me on the shoulder. My eyes pop open and adjust in the darkness to see flashlights and people hovered around me. Chris is one of them. How did he move without waking me up?
“What’s wrong?”
“The flooding is getting worse instead of better,” he explains. “And still no cell service.”
“Shit.” I start to maneuver myself so I can stand up, bracing my hand against the wall for support, but he grabs my arm and lifts me like I’m light as a feather. I’m anything but. I’m about as solid as they come.
“Drew, Jack and the guys are outside. Come on.” His voice is quiet and calm, but there’s another layer underneath that reeks of urgency. It dawns on me that I know him well enough now to hear the nuances in his tone.
“What time is it?” I’m still rather disoriented.
“Two.”
Damn it, I can’t believe I slept two and a half hours. I didn’t mean to. I feel the vise of guilt start to tighten around my neck as I follow Chris.
We step over clumps of sleeping people as we make our way out the front of the building and onto the porch. It’s still dark, but it seems like the wind has died down. It’s only misting at the moment. The guys have a battery-operated lantern set up on the porch, and it’s casting their shadows against the front of the building.
“How bad is it?” I question as soon as we’ve shut the door behind us. No need for our conversation to carry inside and worry anyone.
“Follow me,” Chris says, taking the lead, and everyone falls in step behind him as he starts to walk toward the bridge. The parking lot is full of the wedding guests’ cars. The bridal party parked around back of the cabin, and I think we better check on those cars next. The ones in this lot seem okay, but I think a few latecomers parked on the entry road.
We only make it past the parking lot, and instead of being dotted with puddles like it was earlier in the evening, it’s one continuous shallow pond, just deep enough to cover my feet.
“How far down did you go?” I flash Chris a look, but I don’t think he can see me in the dark. He and Jack are carrying flashlights, but they’re never pointed exactly where I want them to be. It’s amazing none of us have tripped over anything so far.
Just what I need are more broken bones to deal with.
We walk a little bit further, sloshing through the giant puddle, and as the land slopes down toward the bridge, the water grows deeper. That’s when I see the two cars with the tires partially submerged. One is a small Volkswagen, and the other a full-size sedan, judging by what I can see when Jack shines his flashlight on them.
“We gotta move these,” Chris says. “They’re going to get swept away if the water gets any higher.”
There’s no argument; the men simply spread out around the smaller vehicle first, which is closer to the parking lot, and give it the old heave-ho to move it back up toward the main building. Not knowing what to do, I grab a spot and start to help. Once we get it out of the mud and sand where its tires were sinking down, it’s relatively easy to let inertia do its thing. We get it rolled into the main lot where it’s still dry. There are no parking spaces left, but it’s the best we can do. Then we get to work on the bigger car.
“Did you get any sleep?” I ask Chris as we start to head back toward the bridge, our chests heaving from the effort of pushing the car.
“A little. You were snoring,” he tells me.
Wow, that’s not embarrassing at all.
“So you’re a snoring headbanger badge bunny,” he states with a laugh. I start to protest, but he grabs my hand and pulls me into an embrace. “I still think you’re incredible, Dr. Miller.”
Hopefully that will satisfy his need for secrets, because that’s all I feel like giving up at the moment. There is one other thing, but hopefully it won’t come up. Soon it will be dawn, the tide will go out, and even if we’re still flooded, phone service will be restored, and we can get someone here in a boat to rescue
us. Or we can take the canoes from the equipment barn. It’s not exactly the ending Sonnet and Drew wanted for their wedding, but if we can get someone here fast enough, they’ll even be able to make their flight on time for their honeymoon.
We don’t make it very far before the water is too deep to walk through. I can’t see the light poles on the bridge any longer. The marshy islands that dot the bay have also vanished. The only thing I can see as far as the flashlight beams will carry is water.
Brynne gets quiet, very quiet after we see how high the water has risen. The tide is about halfway, so we will have to see what morning brings, but I know how bad it looks right now. It doesn’t seem like all that water will just suddenly subside when dawn breaks. Not even if that’s when the tide will go back out.
“Hey, guys, you want to go check the beach in the back of the property? The water was almost to the equipment barn when we were there. What time was that, Brynne—nine?”
She’s still staring off toward the hidden bridge when she nods.
Jack nods and looks around at the other four men. “Let’s go.”
They head off, leaving one flashlight with us. I do another sweep of the area, surveying all the down limbs. At least the wind has died down. Hopefully the worst of it is over.
“Are you okay?” I ask her before turning to trek back through the water to the main building. At least it’s too early in the year for mosquitos. Barely, but we’ve had a chilly spring, and I’m actually glad of that at this moment.
“Mrs. Wilson really needs to get to the hospital,” she says, her voice flat. “I should probably go check on her again. And I’m a little worried about Sonnet and Drew’s neighbor, the elderly diabetic lady. I need to check on her too. I can’t believe I slept that long.”
Badge Bunny Page 18
