Page 12 of The Fault Next Door

Was the tornado gone? His hands shook as he reached for the door handle. He paused, his fingers gripping the cold metal as he listened for something to tell him what had happened.

The sound had quieted. He pulled open the door about an inch and didn't hear anything weird. Had the storm passed? This wasn't a hurricane, so there was no eye that would trick him into thinking everything was calm when the rest of the storm was on its way.

He closed his eyes and stood still, listening for any noise that indicated the tornado still threatened. From what he could tell, the tornado was gone.

Though his hands were shaking, and he wanted to stay in the house, he needed to check on everything. He made his way to the den, happy nothing looked broken. The windows all looked intact. He blew out a breath of relief.

Nolan headed outside and walked around his house, seeing no damage. Relief filled him until he glanced over and saw Ryder’s place. Curtains billowed out of one window at Ryder’s house.

“Oh shit.”

He didn't see Ryder's truck in the driveway, so he headed over, getting a deep moo from Mavis. The noise initially scared him, but he laughed and headed her way, giving her a loving scratch.

“I don’t know where he is, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Nolan walked around the house, seeing that only one window was busted. It sucked that Ryder’s house had been damaged. After taking a good look at everything, he pulled out his phone and checked the weather application, seeing that another storm would be coming through in about thirty minutes. If he didn’t cover up that window, Ryder’s house could be ruined, or at least the carpet in that room would be toast.

Nolan opened his garage, not seeing much other than the cardboard boxes he'd unpacked but hadn't taken to the recycling center. Maybe he shouldn't do anything, but he felt the need to help Ryder.

He should have gotten Ryder's phone number so he could contact him. After grabbing duct tape and a couple of boxes, he headed to Ryder's house. All he had was cardboard. Would it even work? If he applied the cardboard to the outside would that be enough? No, he should do both inside and outside.

Maybe this was foolish, but he headed to the back porch and moved to the sliding back door. He knocked once, then again. After a moment, he tried the door, and it slid open. "Hello. Is anyone here?"

No one answered. Nolan stepped in and thought about leaving the door open but remembered Ryder's story of the goatsgetting in and shut the door. After calling out twice more, he was sure Ryder wasn't home.

The window had been damaged on the side closest to his house, so he headed down the short hall to that bedroom. Before he started working, he took a few snapshots in case insurance wanted the information, then began working. With the glassed picked up from the floor, he was ready to start in on covering the window. It took a moment to fit the cardboard to the window, but soon he had it secured in place. Nolan was about to leave the room when he heard a vehicle pull into the driveway.

Fear twisted through him, but he couldn't see out the window since he'd covered it already. He picked up the tape and the cardboard, then remembered he needed to grab the trashcan full of glass. When he turned, he knocked into it and had to scramble so it didn't spill all over the place.

The car door shut and he tried to hurry out of the bedroom and back into the main room. It would be weird being here inside Ryder’s house with him not home. Maybe this had been a mistake.

Nolan had just made it to the kitchen and set down the trash can when the door right beside him opened. A scream escaped his lips and Ryder gasped. Then Nolan was pushed up against the wall, his hands held overhead.

At first, he knew Ryder didn’t know who he was. He tried to talk, but his tongue was tied.

Anger and fear shone in Ryder’s eyes. Then he saw the moment it changed from anger to a different kind of heat.

There were no lights on, and the sun was covered by clouds, so the light spilling in was muted at best, but he could see the desire, and he felt the thickness of Ryder's cock. Shock pulsed through him that was chased by molten desire.

For a moment, he thought Ryder was going to kiss him, but both of their phones went off from another weather alert.

"Fuck, you idiot," Ryder cursed. "What the fuck are you doing in my house?"

“Your window was busted out. I put up cardboard.”

“Cardboard? That won’t do much.” Ryder let him go and backed up, taking in the trashcan full of glass. “Shit. Cardboard is better than having rain blow in.”

Nolan shrugged. “I don’t have any plywood.”

“Fuck,” Ryder cursed again before he wiped his hand over his face. “Sorry, you just surprised the heck out of me.” He grabbed his phone and looked at the alert that was just sent out. “Another tornado in the area. I have plywood. Help me get it up.”

“Sure.”

They headed out to Ryder’s shed, and he grabbed a plank of plywood. Thunder rumbled in the distance though it hadn’t started to rain again. They headed around to the busted-out window and Ryder’s lips thinned when he saw the cardboard-covered window.

“Sorry about that. I guess my efforts were useless.”

Ryder shook his head. “No, you did good. You didn’t know I have plywood in the shed. If you need any, just grab some. It’s there for stuff like this.”

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