Forever My Hero, page 24
As soon as the dog had done his business, they headed back into the main part of the house. Even as they were coming through the kitchen, they could hear some kind of uproar.
Charlie looked anxious, but Dan was already running.
“What’s wrong?” Dan asked as he ran into the living room.
“We can’t find Patty,” Alice said. “She was here in the living room, and now she’s not.”
“Where was she playing?” Dan asked.
Elliot pointed. “Over by the fireplace. She didn’t leave the room, or I would have seen her.”
Alice was in tears.
Dan walked toward the fireplace, frowning, and then saw her doll on the floor beside the bookshelves and immediately knew where she’d gone.
“Don’t cry,” Dan said. “I know exactly where she’s at. She got herself in there, and now she can’t figure out how to get out.”
“Out of what?” Alice cried.
“This house used to be on a route for the Underground Railroad. There is a room behind this bookcase where they hid the runaway slaves,” Dan said, and went straight to the bookshelves, squatted down, and pressed on a decorative scroll that had been carved into the wood on both ends of the shelves.
Immediately, a door about five feet high swung inward. Patty was sitting in several layers of dirt, with tears on her cheeks.
Dan reached in and pulled her out, then hugged her. “Bless your heart, honey. Why didn’t you call out?”
“I was afraid Mama would get mad because I got so dirty,” she said.
Alice dropped to her knees. “Child, you are going to make my hair gray long before its time. Since when have I ever been mad at you for getting dirty?”
Patty sniffled. “Since never, I guess.”
Alice started to pick her up, when Dan did it for her. “Don’t want to get your clean bandage dirty. We’ll follow. You lead the way.”
“Oh, right!” Alice said. “I guess to the bathroom in our bedroom.”
Patty hid her face against Dan’s neck all the way up the stairs and into the bedroom she shared with her mother.
“You’re okay,” Dan whispered. “No one’s mad, honey. You just scared us.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to get stuck.”
He patted her back and then set her down on the closed lid of the commode.
The whine of the storm was more evident up here, and it made Alice shudder. “I cannot imagine how hard and how frightening this would be if the kids and I were at Hope House alone. This house feels like a fortress, and you are the guardian at the gate. Thank you for counting us in.”
Dan was so touched by what she’d said. He slid a hand beneath the thick fall of her dark hair and brushed a kiss across her forehead.
“Alice Conroy, you and your children have given me more joy in the last couple of days than I’ve had in ten years and have given my life purpose. Believe me, you are very welcome. Now, do you need anything else?”
“We can manage the rest. Thank you, again. I swear, when this is over, you’re never going to want to see us again.”
Dan cupped the side of her cheek. “That’s far from true. I don’t want to think about anyone leaving. If you need anything, I’ll be downstairs.”
Alice nodded.
He could hear her talking as he walked out of the bathroom. Something about getting a leash for Patty like the one they used for Booger, which made Patty giggle. He smiled.
* * *
They had the television on in the kitchen while they were making supper to listen to weather updates. The fact that the newscasters were finally talking about the hurricane weakening as it moved farther inland was reason to celebrate. And with no cell phone service, conversation had its own kind of revival at the table as they ate.
For Dan, it had begun to feel like this was his little family, and because of the storm and the limitation on the generator, a light was on only in the room in which they’d gathered, and when they moved from room to room, they turned everything off as they went. It gave intimacy and a sense of safety to have light in the darkness, and every time he went to refuel the generator, Dan thanked Preston Williams for the foresight to have this done.
Tonight they were having stew made from hamburger meat, onions, potatoes, and a big bag of mixed vegetables. It was plain food, but it was hearty and it was warm. Elliot tasted it as he gave it a stir and added a tiny bit more salt. When Alice stirred it later, then tasted, she added a bay leaf. Dan came by later, tasted it, added a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, stirred it up, tasted it again, and took it off the heat.
Alice called her children to the table. Bowls were filled. Cheese and crackers were served on the side, and water was the beverage of choice.
It wasn’t long after the kitchen was cleaned up before Alice took Patty upstairs and put her to bed. After having a bath only a couple of hours earlier, she tucked her doll under her chin and fell asleep.
Charlie was tired and willingly took Booger upstairs to watch TV.
Elliot got a book from the library and went to his room, leaving Dan and Alice alone. It was just after 9:00 p.m. and they were sitting in the shadows with only the television for light, watching one weather update after another, waiting for the one when the forecasters began talking about the storm losing force as it moved farther inland.
Even though Alice felt safe here with Dan, watching what was happening farther along the coast made her anxious. There was so much devastation, and so many lives would be forever changed. Finally, she’d had enough.
Alice looked at Dan. “Are you sleepy?”
“No. Are you?” he said.
She shook her head.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
She shrugged. “What do you want to do?”
“Make love to you,” he said softly.
Alice’s eyes widened.
“Did that scare you?” he asked.
“No. I’m hardly an innocent or a virgin. Does it scare you?” she asked.
“No. I’m hardly an innocent or a virgin, either,” he said. “So what do you think?”
Alice hesitated. Saying this might change the tenuous grasp they had on their very new relationship, but he’d asked, and she wasn’t going to lie. “I think making love with you might mean more to me than it does to you, and I don’t want to be a convenient attraction.”
Dan leaned across the sofa and pulled her into his arms. “I haven’t felt like this for a woman since my wife died. I’m not a player, sweetheart.”
“Neither am I, and for obvious reasons,” Alice said.
Dan traced the shape of her cheek with the back of his hand. “For your children.”
She nodded. “We’re still in the middle of being tagged as drug dealers. The last thing I want is to be considered ‘an available woman.’”
Dan brushed a kiss across her lips. “But if we were together, then you would obviously be unavailable.”
She sighed. “Why do I feel like I’m on the stand and about to confess to your desires?”
He laughed softly. “I’m not trying to sell you anything but me. I want to give this relationship a chance. I want you…all of you…in my life.”
“Can you make love on mute?” Alice asked.
“Uh…not sure what you’re getting at,” he said.
“Surely you remember making love with kids next door.”
He laughed out loud. “Ah…on mute. I love that.” Then his laughter shifted to a quiet smile. “Of course I remember. Give me a chance, and I’ll prove it.”
She got up and started walking away.
“Hey! Where are you going?” he asked.
She paused, then turned around. “Upstairs. I’m an equal opportunity employer, but you need to show me what you’ve got. I don’t take anyone’s word without a little proof to go with it. Are you coming?”
“Not yet. I’m a ladies-first man,” Dan said, and bounced up from the sofa.
Chapter 18
Alice heard the television in Charlie’s room as they passed by the door.
Elliot’s room was quiet but the light was still on, and Alice’s room was quiet, which meant Patty was still asleep.
Dan held her hand all the way up the stairs and was still holding it when they went inside his room and locked the door. The night-light in the bathroom shed all the light they needed. But there was an element of risk to making love during a hurricane.
“I know there’s a lot to be said for foreplay, but I’d say it’s a chancy move tonight, considering the number of factors that could bring this whole event to a halt,” Dan said softly.
She gave him a thumbs-up and took off her shoes and socks, then pulled her shirt over her head.
Dan slid his arms around her waist, pulled her close, and kissed her. Her heart was racing as she reached for his belt buckle, and then he unfastened her bra and pulled it off.
“Take it off, Amos,” Alice whispered, eyeing his shirt as she unsnapped her jeans and began struggling to get them off with only one good hand.
He was out of his clothes within seconds and then took hers off as well. For a few moments, they were motionless, looking at the shapes and sizes of each other, then their gazes met.
Alice sighed. “Just so you know, you are only the second man I’ve ever made love to, so I don’t have any tricks to fall back on.”
“None needed,” he said.
He cupped the fullness of her breasts, ran his hands down the sides of her very small waist, and then followed the flare of her hips as he picked her up and laid her down in his bed.
The wind blew something against the brickwork near his windows that shattered upon impact. She jumped. Dan rose up on one elbow just long enough to look into her eyes…to make sure she was still on board.
“No, I have not changed my mind,” she whispered.
“Neither have I,” he said, and kissed her long and hard, while the world outside came apart around them.
Being with Dan felt like a dream. The only thing that made it real for Alice was the building heat deep in her belly and the need to feel him inside her. When he finally slid between her legs, she rose up to meet him, following his lead as if they’d been dancing together for years. Their passion, coupled with the overhead storm, was an aphrodisiac they hadn’t expected.
One moment Alice was riding the high, and then another gust of wind slammed something else against the house, and when it did, the climax slammed into her as well. She was shaking in every muscle as the contractions moved through her, and while she was still riding the afterglow, Dan finally let go. He fell into the climax as wave after wave of pleasure moved through him.
It took a couple of minutes for hearts to stop racing and pulses to go back into steady rhythm. The silence between them was from the total satisfaction of what just happened.
“Sweet bird of youth. That was nothing but pure beauty,” Alice whispered.
Dan rose up on his elbows and looked down into her face. Dark hair tousled. Eyelids at half-mast. Lips the tiniest bit swollen. And he could still feel the rhythm of her heartbeat.
“I guess you know I’m gonna want to do this again,” he said.
She ran her thumb along the edge of his lower lip. “I will be looking forward to it,” she said. “But my instinct tells me I need to get dressed.”
He sighed. “Duly noted,” he whispered, and gave her one last kiss before she got out of bed.
He watched as she began gathering up her clothes, but when she started toward the bathroom to dress, she suddenly stopped and turned her head, as if trying to look at the back side of her hip.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
“Your brand. It’s still burning,” she said, then gave him a slow, sexy smile before she closed the door.
Dan couldn’t get the smile off his face as he got up and started dressing, and within five minutes, they were on their way downstairs. It was time for him to check the fuel gauge on the generator while Alice began to put away the games the kids had been playing.
Because of the kissing and hugging that went on between tasks, it took far longer than it should have to bring an end to the day.
* * *
Big Tom and Albert were still up when daybreak came.
Big Tom wouldn’t go to bed because every time he closed his eyes, he saw Junior falling backward into the floodwaters.
Albert had dozed off once or twice, but the winds would either blow something against the house or blow something off of it, and it kept him awake wondering if they would still have a house when this was over.
After the second time he woke up, he stayed awake for his dad. They spent the rest of the night talking and crying and talking some more, remembering their favorite stories about Junior, and all the while, Albert had the burden on his heart of knowing what they had done and how far Junior had fallen from the way he’d been raised.
* * *
The storm was battering Beulah Gatlin’s old two-story house, snapping trees like matchsticks and tossing them about. One had already landed on the porch, taking out the porch posts and the roof that covered it, which scared the family to the point of moving into the back of the house.
Moses and J. B. paced like caged animals, while Beulah lay in her bed fully dressed, with that baby doll clutched close to her chest.
Every time her sons came to check on her, she’d send them away. She didn’t want company. She was busy taking the rage in her heart for how her life had turned out and turning it into pity for herself. By the time she finally dozed off, she’d found a way to turn her sins into heroic gestures and convinced herself that sending Marty’s family away had been necessary to eradicate the memory of his fall from grace.
* * *
At Ruby’s insistence, Peanut had finally taken his long, tall self back to the waiting room, where he’d stretched out on the sofa and gone to sleep.
As for Ruby, she was up and down all night and way into the early-morning hours comforting Lovey, getting a drink, covering her up because she was cold, holding her hand as she breathed through excruciating pain while waiting for pain meds to kick in, or turning on the light over her bed and calming her when she woke up screaming for help, dreaming that she was still trapped.
By morning, Ruby knew the details of everything that happened—from the time Lovey was standing at the window looking out to the moment she saw Johnny Pine’s face as he chopped a hole in the door to rescue her.
Lovey talked about the ride to the ER in some kind of giant bulldozer and how strong a man Johnny turned out to be. She cried quiet tears when she talked about dying and was somewhat surprised to still be here.
Ruby was shocked by how much of the hurricane Lovey had been subjected to and knew now that she’d lost hearing in one ear not because of an injury, but from the blast of the wind itself as she lay helpless on the bathroom floor.
Once when Lovey drifted off to sleep, Ruby ran back down the hall to the waiting room, dropped to her knees beside the sofa where Peanut lay sleeping, and put her head down on his chest and cried.
He woke up thinking Lovey had died, only to find out Ruby was simply overwhelmed by what her friend had endured. He sat her down on the sofa and headed to the vending machines, returning with cold pop, sweet chocolate, and a bag of salty chips. They sat together in silence, sharing food as they were learning to share their lives, grateful to still have each other.
Just after daylight, one of the nurses came in to give Lovey another dose of pain meds. She injected it into the IV, refilled the water pitcher, and added some ice before helping ready Lovey for breakfast, while Ruby watched in silence.
“The meals are minimal in choices, but we won’t let anyone go hungry,” the nurse said. “Oh…and a bit of good news. The latest hurricane update is that it’s moving farther inland, weakening in intensity as it goes.”
“Oh thank God,” Ruby said. “I’m going to go tell Peanut.”
“I don’t think it’s safe to drive outside just yet,” the nurse said. “We can bring cold cereal and hot coffee for both of you when we bring Lovey’s breakfast.”
Ruby smiled. “That would be much appreciated. Thank you so much.”
“We’re the ones who are grateful. We’re all pretty tired here on the floor, and you took almost all of the care Lovey needed last night onto your shoulders.”
“She’s the sister I never had, and that’s what family does for each other,” Ruby said. “Lovey, I’m going up to the waiting room to get Peanut. I’ll be right back.”
Lovey nodded. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, praying for that pain shot to take effect again. For a while, she was measuring her life by how long she could go from pain shot to pain shot. By the time Ruby and Peanut returned, she had fallen back to sleep. But things were looking up.
When an orderly brought breakfast to the room a short while later, he was smiling. “The wind isn’t as strong as it was. Maybe there’s going to be something left of Blessings after all.”
* * *
Alice woke up beside Patty, thought of last night, and shivered with anticipation. It marked the first step into the possibility of a new life—a full life—with a pretty special man. She rolled over onto her back and stretched, and as she did, realized something was drastically different.
The wind wasn’t as strong. The rain didn’t sound like a deluge. What if this was the beginning of the end for Hurricane Fanny? She jumped up, covered her bandaged hand with a plastic bag and tied it down around her wrist with a strip of masking tape, then showered and dressed in the same jeans she’d worn yesterday. She put on a clean shirt and some socks and shoes, then gave her hair a good brushing and left it down around her shoulders.
