She looked down the road at the long line of headlights, duty making her waffle about going home. Ben saw the indecision on her face. “We’ve got this,” he said, putting his hand on the side of her waist. Even as tired as she was, she was aware that he’d made a very public declaration by touching her that way. No one seeing the gesture would think, “Oh, they’re just friends.”
But she wanted to be his friend, as well as his lover. Friendship was more difficult, more emotionally intimate and they hadn’t achieved either step yet. She looked up at him with a wan smile and nodded. “I know you do. I just feel guilty leaving. But I need to get Olivia home, and I think I’ll fire up the generator so we can all have a nice hot bath.” Though she’d had a shower at his place, now she felt grimy with gun smoke, and her hair and clothes smelled like burnt gunpowder. After the stress of the night, she wanted the comfort of modern conveniences. They had carefully hoarded their cans of gas for colder times and emergencies, but she thought this qualified as an emergency.
She dared to give his arm a gentle squeeze, then dragged herself into the store to get their rifles before going to Olivia. Fatigue made her feel as if she had weights tied to her legs, and her eyes were gritty. “Let’s go home,” she said. “And fire up the generator so we can have hot water for showers. We’ll have to start the pump for the well, too.” Before they’d switched over to the county water system, all of the houses had had wells, and water pumps. Without electricity they’d been pulling buckets of water from the wells or hauling it from the creeks.
Olivia’s eyes lit up. “Hot water! OMG, that’s worth being shot at!”
Sela gave a reluctant laugh. She wouldn’t go that far, but Olivia’s enthusiasm meant she’d make herself keep going long enough to get everything done.
Thank goodness she didn’t have far to drive, because she kept blinking to keep her eyes open. In the passenger seat, Olivia huddled down into her coat. “I’m so cold.”
“I am, too.” The drive didn’t last long enough for the Honda to get warm. She pulled into the driveway and saw lamplight shining in the window, which meant someone was already awake. It was nearing dawn, she thought, seeing the sky lightening in the east.
Before she and Olivia made it up the steps the door opened and Barb and Nancy both crowded out. “We’ve been so worried! Are you two all right? I can’t believe you did such a foolhardy thing!” Barb cried, tears in her voice, then she held her palm up to Olivia for a high five. “I’m so proud of you both, and don’t ever do anything like that again!” After Olivia, Barb high-fived Sela, too.
“We didn’t plan on doing it to begin with,” Sela murmured as they entered the warm house.
Nancy said, “What happened to your face?”
“Broken glass. It’s nothing, just a few little nicks.”
She and Olivia shed their coats, then both went to stand in front of the fire. Sela had just had the thought that she was glad Carol had evidently slept through the crisis, when her aunt called from the other room, “Sela! Olivia! You two get in here!”
Barb rolled her eyes. “She’s been fit to be tied, since we found out what happened.”
“How did you find out?”
“Leigh Kilgore said Mike tore out of the house when he heard shooting, and she followed on foot because he forgot his gloves. She tracked the noise and lights to the store. After she gave Mike his gloves she stopped by back here and let us know what was going on.”
She hadn’t even seen Leigh at the store, but then she’d been a little distracted.
“Sela!” Carol bellowed again.
“I hear you!” Sela bellowed back, because it had been that kind of night.
A shocked silence came from the bedroom, and Olivia rolled her eyes. “You’ve done it now,” she said in a stage whisper as she headed toward Carol’s bedroom. Sela trudged after her, knowing Carol had to be soothed before they could do the necessary chores to get the water heater working, but she was almost at the end of her tether.
“We didn’t know anything was going to happen,” she growled as she entered the bedroom.
Carol’s eyes widened at Sela’s appearance, and perhaps also at her uncharacteristic surliness. “You’re hurt,” she whispered, her hand going to her mouth.
“It’s just a couple of little nicks, I promise. The store doesn’t have a window left, though.”
“Sela gave Mr. Parsons the finger,” Olivia announced.
Sela’s face got hot, though she was grateful to Olivia for deflecting Carol’s attention away from the danger they’d been in; she just wished it wasn’t her own bad behavior that had been brought to the forefront. “I was stressed,” she muttered.
Olivia curled up beside Carol on the bed, rested her head against Carol’s shoulder. “I’m not sorry I sneaked out, Gran. If I hadn’t, Sela might be dead. She needed me, and y’all wouldn’t have let me go if I’d asked.”
Carol opened her mouth, then shut it. Perhaps she was trying to think what she could do beyond scolding them both, but she also had to admit that, faced with a difficult decision, they’d done the best they could and had succeeded in keeping the gas safe.
“You’d have been there with us if you’d been able,” Sela pointed out.
“That’s true,” Barb said, coming into the room with Nancy, who was putting on her coat. “Don’t even try to say you wouldn’t.”
“I have to get home and feed my bunch,” Nancy said, “but I want to put in my two cents’ worth before I leave. I’m proud of you, Sela, and you, too, Olivia. The two of you saved the gasoline for us. I’m grateful neither of you were hurt—or at least not hurt very much—and anytime you need backup you just let me know.”
Nancy left, and Barb said, “I don’t know about all of you, but I could use a cup of coffee and more breakfast than usual. Worrying burns up calories, you know.”
Sela remembered everything she had to do before she could crash. “I’m going to start the generator and the well pump, if I can figure out how, and get the water heater going. I think we all deserve a nice hot shower.”
“Fine for you to say, at least you can get in the shower,” Carol grumbled, looking at her splinted and elevated leg.
“If you want one, we can put a chair in the shower and get you in and out,” Barb said stoutly. “As for turning on the well pump, I can help with that, too. We old people used to have to do stuff like that all the time. We were constantly having trouble with our pump. Likely we’ll have to have a couple of buckets of water to prime it and get it going.”
Sela almost cried in gratitude that someone knew what to do. She’d been expecting to go the trial-and-error route, which would take time she so desperately needed for rest.
However long Carol had intended to scold them, those plans went by the wayside when faced with Sela’s cut face, Olivia’s statement of why she’d sneaked out, and the prospect of a hot shower. There was also the matter of flipping Ted Parsons the bird, which Sela suspected would be brought up later, amid a lot of teasing.
Barb insisted they would all feel better after they’d had something to eat, and she was right; the food and a cup of coffee didn’t exactly energize her, but with Barb’s help Sela was able to do what needed to be done to get water running. Then she turned on the water heater, and listened to the satisfying snaps and pops as the heating unit began heating water. Olivia stood next to a lamp and turned it on, staring in pleasure at the glow of the electric light. “Can we do this once a month?” she asked wistfully.