Page 114 of Ten Beach Road

The endless journey off the beach passed largely in intense eyes-on-the-road-trying-to-see-through-the-driving-rainwhile-willing-themselves-forward silence. It took an hour to reach the Don CeSar, where they followed the Bayway toward the interstate.

Avery sputtered awake much later. Traveling at what felt like an inch per hour, it had taken an eternity to reach the Howard Franklin Bridge. The relative safety of Tampa lay on the other side. Nikki turned in her seat when Avery groaned and watched the blonde struggle to lift her head off the overnight bag they’d pillowed underneath it.

“Shit!” Avery groaned, pulling herself into a sitting position. She rubbed her jaw slowly. “What happened? Did somebody hit me?”

“We all wanted to,” Nicole said. “But Deirdre got in the first and only punch.”

“Shit.” The curse was almost reflective, and Nikki imagined Avery was recalling what had happened. Kyra was turned in the passenger seat aiming the camera at them. Avery grabbed on to Nicole’s and Deirdre’s seats to pull herself upright. She looked at Nikki. “Youarehere. I thought I had dreamed it.” She rubbed the side of her face, still regrouping. “This is a frickin’ nightmare,” she said. “And as for you, Deirdre, I can’t believe you slugged me. I told you I didn’t want to . . .”

“Be quiet,” Deirdre said, turning to face Avery. “You were being unreasonable. We did what we had to do.”

“You always have a way of justifying yourself, don’t you?” Avery asked angrily. “You always have to be right.”

“Like mother, like daughter,” Nicole murmured loud enough for both of them to hear. Before Avery or Deirdre could protest, Maddie, whose hands were white from her death grip on the wheel, said, “Shut up, all of you! I can barely see through this rain, we’re packed in so tightly between cars I couldn’t change lanes if I had to, and our gas is getting low. I can’t take your petty sniping on top of everything else. If you can’t say something nice, just . . . shut up!” Maddie’s loss of control stunned them into a silence, which lasted for some time.

“I can’t see anything from back here,” Avery finally said. “Where are we?”

“We’re almost in Tampa,” Maddie replied, her voice still tight. “I’m going to start breathing again as soon as we get off this bridge and away from all this water.”

Kyra panned the camera across their faces and out the window to capture the traffic that surrounded them.

“Kyra, please,” Maddie said. Kyra put the camera away.

“Where are we headed?” Deirdre asked, staring out the windshield. Nicole noticed that she only stole glances at Avery when she thought no one was looking.

“I don’t know,” Maddie said. “It looks like people are continuing north on the interstate, but we don’t have enough gas to get far, and I figured we’d want to be safe but in the vicinity so that we can go and check on Bella Flora as soon as we’re allowed back on the beach.”

There was another long silence and Nicole knew they were all thinking about the defenseless house sitting and waiting for unwelcome guest Charlene.

“Ky,” Maddie said. “Plug in the GPS and go into ‘points of interest.’ That’ll bring up a list of hotels within whatever radius we choose.”

Kyra put down the camera and did as her mother asked. A few minutes later, they’d moved about an inch, and the mechanical voice said, “recalculating,” in a chiding tone.

“It looks like North Dale Mabry has a ton of gas stations, restaurants, and hotels,” Maddie said after Kyra had read her the list. “I don’t know how hard it’ll be to find a room, but we can just keep heading north on it while we look. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

They didn’t. In fact, by the tenth hotel Nikki was tired of jumping out and asking if they had anything available plus her patience was wearing thin. “We’re in the middle of nowhere,” she complained to the current desk clerk. “How can you be out of rooms?”

“Hurricane’s coming. All the beaches are emptying.” He shrugged. “Can’t create a room I don’t have,” he said reasonably.

But Nicole was all out of reasonable. They were traveling on fumes and the lines at the gas pumps were even longer than the ones wrapped around the hotels. They’d consumed what little food Maddie had managed to pack for them hours ago. They needed a place to stay.

She strode out to the car and opened Kyra’s door. “Leave the camera,” Nikki said. “Come with me.”

She took Kyra by the arm and speed walked her into the tiny motel office. Kyra was out of breath by the time they got there, which Nikki decided could work in their favor. The more pathetic the better.

They marched up to the filthy Formica counter. The desk clerk’s eyes widened slightly when he saw Kyra’s stomach and noticed her labored breathing. He shook his head. “I’m real sorry,” he said. “I see you’ve got a problem. But I don’t have . . .”

“I know,” Nikki said. “Any room at the inn.” She let the biblical reference sink in a moment. “How about a stable? Or even the lobby area here?” She nodded to the small space with its chair and vinyl love seat. Even using the term “lobby” was a stretch. But it was dry and had places to sit. They were way beyond picky. “I know you don’t want to turn a pregnant girl out in this weather.” They all looked out the filthy front window to the artificial darkness and the heavy rain gushing out of it. The clerk glanced down at the computer screen.

“You must have something . . .” Nicole began.

“Well.” He punched a few keys. “I do have one room. It was booked, but they didn’t ask for a late arrival and they’re way overdue. They’ve probably gotten held up by the weather.”

Nicole was very careful not to move too quickly or to presume. She didn’t hug the man or Kyra or pump a triumphant fist in the air. “Gosh,” she said. “That would mean so much to us. Her mother’s out in the van. And her, um, sister, too.” And then because she couldn’t resist. “Today was supposed to be her baby shower.”

Kyra’s eyes went very wide but fortunately the clerk was too busy typing on the keyboard to notice. Nicole elbowed the girl. “Why don’t you go back to the car while I get the key and the room number?”

Kyra went.

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