Page 36 of Always a Roommate
14
SHANE
There was something intensely sad about Rae’s words. I wasn’t a romantic. After everything I’d been through, after what today meant to me, I wasn’t even sure I believed in love anymore—or that it was a good thing, at least.
But for a reason I couldn’t explain to myself, I wanted Rae to think she could have anything, that whatever happiness she saw in her clients was possible for her too.
Yet, I had no words for her, no comfort. Not like she wanted anything of the kind. All I could do was look into her impossibly green eyes. I’d never realized just how bright they were, even in the darkness where a single flashlight cast us into shadow.
The rain faded away until I barely noticed why we were here or the fact that we were sitting in bathing suits and wetsuits because we’d braved the hurricane together. Instead, we were just roommates, who might possibly have gotten each other very wrong.
Rae wasn’t cold. I still wasn’t sure why we argued all the time or why she preferred avoiding me, but it wasn’t because she didn’t think I was worth her time.
No, where I was the storm raging outside, she was the calm that would come in the aftermath.
I wasn’t sure how long we sat without speaking, but I jerked when I heard soft snores coming from my brother. How he could sleep right now was beyond me, but my lips tilted as I watched him.
The towel slid from around his shoulders, so I scooted from my chair to pick it up off the cold ground and drape it over him.
When I turned, Rae was still watching me, a mix of surprise and curiosity on her face.
The light from the flashlight flickered, and Rae smacked it. “Oh no.”
“What?” It flickered again.
“This was on the display. It’s probably been turned off and on a million times.”
And we’d had it on constantly in the hours since we’d found it. “You mean it’s…” I didn’t need to finish my sentence because the flashlight did it for me, flickering once more before winking out and throwing us into the pitch of night.
There were no windows in the storage room, so we no longer saw flashes from the lightning, leaving us in utter darkness.
I felt water on my bare feet and reached down for the concrete floor that was no longer dry. “The store has flooded.” My voice was as calm as it could be when all I wanted to do was panic, just a little.
I heard Rae’s intake of breath as she must have found the water too. We didn’t know what was happening out in the store, if the wood had held over the window, but my guess was the tide had reached the Hut and seeped in under the door.
“What do we do?” Rae asked, voice as steady as the gales of wind blowing outside. She sounded even calmer than me, and I wasn’t sure how she did it.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? Are you serious?”
I ran a hand over the top of my head and glanced in the direction of my sleeping brother. It was his dream being ruined tonight, his business. I wasn’t sure how he’d come back from this, and the thought made me ache for him. “What do you expect us to do, Rae? We can’t leave this storage room when we don’t know the state of things out there. You and I already risked ourselves once. Do you really want to do it again?”
I couldn’t see her, but I heard her shuffling and pictured her crossing her arms and scowling at me the way I’d grown used to. “I would for Tanner.”
“Tanner would never ask you to.” I knew my brother. “He’d rather you stay safe here.”
She grew quiet because she knew I was right.
“Fine,” she grumbled. “But it’s not because you told me to stay.”
A laugh burst out of me. This woman… “How old are you?”
“Old enough.” She went quiet for a long moment. “I’m not a kid anymore, Shane.”
“Oh, trust me, I’ve noticed.” My skin grew hot at my admission, and I was glad she couldn’t see my face.
Neither of us said anything for a while before I couldn’t take it any longer. I had to know. “Was everything you said true?”
