Page 23 of Flirting With Forever
“We still have to be prepared if it doesn’t.” Gage leaned back in his seat and placed his hand on Sloane’s chair.
He didn’t touch her, but she felt the warmth of his presence and fought off a shiver.
“We’ve got a lot of property to board up and transport to storage and that takes time. And a plan.”
“Especially when Hudson and Jameson will be training harder than ever with the fire department to prepare for the weather,” Cole said. “We’re down our usual manpower.”
“I’m happy to help,” Sloane said. “And I rescheduled a few of the nonemergency maintenance jobs today while I was on hold with the tech company. I’ll pitch in where I can. I mean, if there’s a hurricane coming, people aren’t going to be renting things out of the store, right?”
“You’d be surprised.” Gage released a tired sounding exhale. “The tourists tend to wait until the last second to evacuate so it doesn’t interfere with their vacation plans.”
“And then complain when they can’t get out of town because they’re fighting traffic from all the locals who had to stay and work and weren’t able to leave earlier,” Cole added.
“It’s always a mess,” Ana said with a grimace.
“So you don’t evacuate for hurricanes? Like, at all?” Sloane asked, glancing around the table in shock.
“Depends,” Elias said from where he stood to her left. “If you live on the coast long enough, you learn a few things. Like how a storm lands, whether it’s hitting along with certain tides, that sort of thing. It all factors into the severity.”
“Or you’re just crazy enough to ignore the warnings and stay anyway,” Quinley muttered, shooting her man a look.
“The category of the hurricane matters too.” Elias wrapped his arm around Quinley’s shoulders and tugged her close. “And as one of the people required to work up until the last minute, I’d rather be hunkered down somewhere as safe as I can get here than caught out on a highway getting flooded when the system stalls and dumps its rain.”
“We tried to evacuate in the last one, but I couldn’t find a hotel room or anywhere to stay within seven hours of here,” Ana said to Sloane. “My son and I thought about going to one of the shelters but figured we’d be more comfortable at home, so we just stayed there.”
The news left Sloane uneasy. She’d agreed to stay at Gage’s townhouse because it was better than sleeping in her car, but some small part of her still didn’t believe the hurricane would actually hit. Should she be evacuating instead? When would they know for sure where the storm would land?
“We’ll stay on top of the weather,” Elias said in a low voice as though reading Sloane’s thoughts. “Evac if we have to.”
We…
As someone who’d spent the last three years desperate to be as independent and far from her family as possible, she suddenly wished she wasn’t alone. Wished she had someone to lean on. To trust.
Because if Gage and the rest of them evacuated…where would that leave her?
Chapter Seven
Several days had passed since dinner at Haven, and Gage spent them following Sloane’s impressive schedule. They talked over the phone multiple times a day as clients called to book last minute or inquire about hurricane prep, and he’d even found himself chatting with her about normal topics, like how her day was going at the building. Things ran much more smoothly now that the computer system had been fixed, but…he still called.
The hurricane shifted a bit to the north, which was a good sign, but it still lurked in the Atlantic like a monster taking its time to decide which unsuspecting victim to eat first.
By the time Gage called it a day and made it home, Sloane was usually there at the house, but things were typically quiet. He heard no thuds or sounds like she worked overtime on organizing, but he did note new additions to the garage whenever he pulled in to park for the night.
He’d given Sloane permission to store items there because the door was just at the base of the stairs, but he still kept his private quarters locked with the mental reminder that she was a stranger he’d known a short time. She might be an employee—so far, a good one—but they had no paperwork on her, no way of tracking her down if she decided to clean him out and disappear. And, yeah, he did have a security camera outside the second-floor entry pointing toward the front door, so if she tried anything, he’d know.
Sloane seemed nice enough and remarkably capable, but he wouldn’t allow himself to forget that people weren’t always what they seemed. No matter how good of a job she was doing or how much Cole raved about her work and how quickly she picked up the various tasks assigned, Sloane wore her secrets like the freckles on her beautiful face, dodging any questions remotely close to revealing anything real about her past.
And until she was willing to open up and share whatever it was she hid from them, he was determined to keep some distance.
That was easier said than done, though.
Especially when her looks, personality and work ethic drew him like a siren song. She put every ounce of energy into whatever task she performed and didn’t want to stop until it was completed. That was a trait he liked. That she didn’t do things halfway. The control freak in him respected that, and as weird as it might sound, he found it attractive on multiple levels.
Gage rolled out of bed and took a quick shower before heading for coffee. He’d just poured himself a mug when he heard a muffled thud sound from downstairs.
Another soft thud sounded, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. He ran on fumes these days and while he’d meant to be up and at it, he’d slept like the dead. The clock read 9:30 a.m., which was basically noon for the likes of him.
He eyed the pot and decided to go see what Sloane was up to. Carrying a second large mug filled with plenty of cream and sugar, he made his way downstairs and found her door open. She sat on the floor, singing off key to one of his favorite country songs, earbuds in her ears as she sorted through nails, screws and small items needed for various jobs. She’d gathered them up from wherever he’d tossed them and then apparently sorted them by size and type.
