Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Her eyes lifted to meet mine. “You…I didn’t sign the card. How would you know that was me?”
Because I’d researched the hell out of the nurses on his floor that night. But since she hadn’t been officially scheduled to work, I hadn’t actually found her name.
But now, seeing her looking so sick at the thought of my son dying, I knew it’d been her.
She likely reached above and beyond for all of her patients like that.
I wasn’t special, and neither had Tavi been.
That was what made her so special.
She treated everyone with the kindness and dignity that they deserved, until their dying breath.
Until Tavi’s dying breath.
Whatever I’d thought that I felt toward this woman beforehand now seemed a distant sort of feeling.
What I was feeling right now was bordering on possessive.
I wanted that kind of kindness in my life.
I’d only thought that I liked her before, but knowing that she’d helped me on the worst day of my life was making me feel like I might be halfway in love with her.
That was crazy, right?
Maybe I was a little bit out of sorts.
I might have a concussion, because no one fell in love with another person in less than a day.
Then again, I might have a lot more wrong with me based on the fact that I’d fallen out of the sky, crashed into the ground, and then had a literal tornado run over me.
But I didn’t think that I was too far gone that I couldn’t realize what was in my own brain.
“That was a really bad day,” she admitted. “But my bad day wasn’t anywhere near as bad as y’all’s.” She hesitated. “Chevy is really intimidating, or I’d ask him, but how is the baby girl doing?”
I smiled at that. “Growing like a weed. She’s crazy, just like her mama. And her daddy has ‘his little terror’ on his hands that gives him a run for his money.”
The smile that tipped up my lips was a genuine one this time.
Seven
“Wow, you’re so determined.” Thanks, I do everything out of spite.
—Dru’s secret thoughts
DRU
His smile was breathtaking.
He’d smiled before, of course, but this one was definitely a genuine smile that really had my heart beating fiercely in my chest.
“What…”
The lights flickered, and the walls once again groaned.
The wind had picked up yet again, and my stomach was starting to hurt at the thought of what might happen.
“What, what?” he asked as he moved to the cabinet closest to the kitchen entryway and pulled out a bag of dehydrated milk.
I swallowed hard and said, “I don’t remember.”
That happened a lot.
Lord help you if you interrupted me when I was talking, I’d never be able to finish my thought.
His lips quirked.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
He stopped next to the iPad that was dinging like crazy and slid it open, this time without any fancy legwork on his end to get it unlocked.
“Whoa.” He twisted toward me. “Look at this.”
I sidled up to him and glanced at the screen, my breath hitching.
“Whoa,” I breathed.
The article he had pulled up said, “Deadly Twin Tornadoes Rock Arkansas.”
“Is it a video?” I asked, reaching out to click the play button at the top of the screen.
Sure enough, the video started to play, and the more I listened to, the harder it got to hear.
“Deadly twin tornadoes tore through the area of the White River in Arkansas around five p.m. Central Time. Sources say that even more bad weather is set to come for the same area, and urges citizens to be ready for even more. First responders are out in full force tonight, and many more are on their way from neighboring cities and states. As of right now, the tornado ripped through…”
The same deadly storms that the woman’s voice had just warned about was among us.
I had no doubt that more was to come, I was just hoping that Mother Nature spared us.
The video finally finished, and I leaned my hips against the counter next to the man who had the ability to affect me by doing nothing.
“What’s the plan?” I asked as the wind howled.
“We’re going to find a room to buckle down in and wait,” he said. “One with no windows, and interior-only walls.”
“But first, let’s do this diaper change,” I suggested.
The walls creaked around us before he said, “We’ll take it and go.”
He grabbed all the supplies that he would need, finding some masking tape in the drawer closest to the back door, and jerked his chin at me. “Go. To the door right off the living room. It was a utility room.”
I went, not letting myself freak out until I was behind the closed door next to the nicest set of washers and dryers—yes, washers and dryers plural.
“Do you think that it’s a tornado?”
He patted the dryer and said, “Put ’im down.”
I did, watching with rapt fascination as he changed the baby, then wrapped him up with a couple of towels and some masking tape.