Page 23 of Wilde Secrets

Logan rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “That’s the thing. I’m not sure we’ll be able to get there for a few days.”

“What?” That was not the news Harper wanted to hear.

Logan reached for a discarded tee shirt draped over the porch railing and tugged it on over his head. His voice was muffled by the fabric as he replied. “The road’s flooded. We’re stuck here until the water goes down.”

“Oh.”

She turned and looked across the stretch of grass and granite boulders that sloped down toward the water. The boat on the little jetty bobbed gently on the water.

She narrowed her eyes at it.

“What about the boat?”

Logan turned to look at the boat and then back at Harper. “No motor. It’s a project boat that I haven’t managed to get around to fixing.”

“Oh.”

“Come on, I’ll show you.”

He held out a hand, and Harper slipped hers into it, savoring the warmth of his large palm against hers. He helped her down to the ground and then released her hand, leaving her feeling a little empty. Logan showed her a set of steps with a railing she hadn’t noticed before, and they followed it down to where the boat was moored.

As soon as she got close enough, she realized what Logan meant. The boat was a small motorboat, like the kind people used for fishing. There was a mount for a canopy, which was missing, and where the motor should have been, was a gaping hole.

“Ahh,” she said with a grimace.

Logan, noticing her expression, laughed. “Exactly. You want to see the road?”

Harper nodded. “Yes. I want to see what I’m up against.”

“I thought you might. And… well, I think you need to see it.”

A short while later, Harper had put on a pair of her own shoes and was back in the passenger seat of Logan’s truck. Branches and leaves were strewn across the road, and Logan carefully navigated through the debris, stopping occasionally to drag a particularly large branch off the road.

It took them much longer than the previous night to reach the area near where her car lay in the ditch. Logan slowed the truck, pulling off to one side of the road and putting the handbrake on.

The road dipped in front of them, the spot where she’d slid off the road just visible, and Logan was right. It was flooded.

What would be just a low point in the land when it was dry was awash with a raging torrent of water that rushed past. Harper watched, eyes wide, as part of a tree floated past.

“Oh, wow,” Harper breathed in awe. “That’s a lot of water.”

“Yep,” Logan agreed, turning off the ignition.

He hopped out, and Harper followed, picking her way around fallen branches until she reached the front of the truck.

Logan was staring at something, and she came to stand next to him.

“Look.” Logan pointed with one hand at something on the other side of the raging torrent.

She followed his gaze, squinting. “Is that my car?”

“Yep.”

“Oh, my god.”

There was no question it was her car, though little of it was still visible, crushed beneath the weight of a fallen tree. The little gray hatch was almost unrecognizable, the driver’s side almost entirely flattened.

“If I’d been inside…” The blood drained from her face.

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