Page 67 of Eye of the Hurricane
“Yes, lots,” I tell him, standing from the bed.
I walk past him into the living room. I turn on my own phone’s flashlight and make my way to the cabinets under the TV stand.
Just as I’m about to open them, the emergency weather alert goes off on both of our phones, sending my blood pressure through the roof. It’s letting us know that our area is under a tornado warning.
Hurricanes, I’ve done—sort of. Floods, I’ve done. Tornadoes? I am absolutely terrified of.
“Where is Bellatrix?” I call out, my voice shaking.
“I still have her,” he assures me. I grab the nearest bottle of water and rush past the couch toward the coat closet I cleared out earlier.
I stop in my tracks outside of the closet trying to think of anything I’m forgetting. Water, first aid kit, cat,boyfriendFAKE boyfriend, closet, that’s it.
I reach for Ares’ hand and haul him into the closet with me, closing the door behind us. We both fit in the closet but it’s a tight squeeze. Our bodies are only inches from each other.
“The weather. Can you put on the weather?” I ask, voice trembling. I reach out to take Bellatrix from him but she crawls further up his chest.
“Yeah, I’ll put it on.”
He pulls the phone from his pocket and does as he says, pulling up some stream of the weather. We both watch intently.
There is a radar-indicated tornado by Everest Hills headed in our direction. It’s currently 9:23 P.M. There’s three other time stamped locations and then Doves Harbor, set to be hit at 9:38.
My heart is racing and I can feel myself hyperventilating. Ares looks at me with sympathetic eyes but doesn’t say a word. I find myself disappointed that he doesn’t make some effort to comfort me. It isn’t fair, though. I’m the one who put the distance between us.
“I’m really scared, Ares,” I admit quietly.
Just like that, his walls melt to the ground and he’s pulling me in. My head hits his chest. Fuzzy black fur tickles the side of my head.
“We’re going to be okay,” he says, chin resting on the top of my head.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do, because I’m watching this stream and it’s going to miss us,” he says, pulling back from me and pointing to the screen. He’s right. It’s going to miss almost all of Doves Harbor.
“This is all very scary to me. We had hurricanes back in Louisiana, but tornadoes… I’ve hardly had to deal with those. I’m just freaked out,” I admit.
He hums in understanding as he holds me, rubbing comforting circles on my back. I lean into him slightly, soaking up his warmth, before I freeze in his grasp. We’re supposed to be doing distance, regardless of the circumstances, and this? This is about as not distanced as we can get.
I know he can tell that I’ve locked up, but he doesn’t stopholding me or comforting me. Instead, he speaks in a low and soft tone.
“Tonight is going to be a long night no matter what. But it’s going to be much longer if you insist on doing it alone just for the sake of distance.”
He isn’t wrong and I want to snarl at him for reading me so well. But there’s not enough room in this closet to pull back far enough to fight. Even if there was, there’s not enough fight left in me to try.
“I don’t disagree,” I murmur. “But I meant what I said. We need distance.”
“Okay, then let’s do distance after the hurricane is over. Call it even for the night,” he suggests.
It’s playing with fire. I know it is. Still, I find myself nodding.
“Deal,” I agree.
I expect him to say deal or nod. But instead, the hand that was rubbing comforting circles on my back slowly makes its way to the nape of my neck.
“Good. Come here,” he says, hauling my lips to his.
His kiss is feverish and demanding, melting me into him.
