“Yes, Mom.” I rolled my eyes. “Tell your son good luck during the game.”
“Will do. Call me tomorrow morning to let me know that you’re alive,” she ordered.
After promising to do so, I took a shower and got ready for bed. Then went to my computer to write.
What was surprising was how fast the words flowed today. And how my new hero for my next book totally resembled the sexy police officer that’d saved me today.
And when we got to the sex scene? Well, let’s just say I might or might not have been squirming in my chair by the time I was finished.
Chapter 4
I apologized to the man in my head. If he didn’t hear it, that’s on him.
-Text from Sierra to Sammy
Sammy
I shuffled to the kitchen, my goal a glass of water.
I’d just made it to the back of the couch when the loudest bang I’d ever heard sounded, followed shortly by what sounded like a deafening roar.
The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, and there were leaves falling in front of my face.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, looking at the tree limb that’d fallen straight through my back roof. Luckily, it was all on my side, and not remotely touching the second half of the duplex that Saint lived in.
The trunk had split the wall like it was a piece of paper.
I felt around for my phone that was on the ground next to me and still tried to figure out how to move.
I was on my back, staring at the swaying leaves still on the tree limb above me.
“That’s…” I said to nobody. “Holy crap.”
That’s when the tornado sirens started going off.
My phone beeped, and I reached for it, glancing at the readout.
“National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for Gregg, Rusk, Panola, and Camp counties,” it read.
From the chief of police.
It was a mass text message that was sent to every single person in the department.
I stared at the tree limb and wondered if the tree limb above me was from a tornado, or just the high winds that we’d been told we were getting ahead of the storm.
My guess was the high winds.
But what did I know?
I exited out of the text, then went to the phone app, wondering who the hell I could call.
Hell, everyone that would normally be here right now had gone out at the Back Porch in town for a tornado party, as everyone had called it.
I hadn’t because I’d been too goddamn sick and couldn’t hold my eyes open long enough to direct a water bottle to my mouth, let alone be functional enough to be standing.
I dialed my dad and waited for it to ring, but it never did.
So I tried my mom with much the same results.
Over and over again I called out, only for it to bounce back with a busy signal or for the call to not go through at all.
I finally peeled myself up off the floor and thought about what I needed to do next.
There was one thing for sure, I couldn’t get this tree out of my fucking house without help. And even with help, I would be really fuckin’ useless right now.
And the phones weren’t working.
Son of a bitch.
The only fuckin’ person that I knew with a landline was the duplex manager.
The one that had nearly caused me to die today.
But there was no other option for it.
The tree was through the roof.
They needed to know about it.
And I was too much of a little bitch to handle it on my own right now.
I could barely lift my feet to walk out the door.
Which is what I did in the next second.
Carefully making my way down the sidewalk, I cringed at the freezing rain as it pelted my back and neck.
I cursed myself for not grabbing a jacket and hurried as fast as my poor, pitiful legs would carry me down the path that would lead to the duplex manager’s place.
I got to it, barely, and was just knocking on the door when the hail started.
I could feel the hail pelting me in the back, and I cringed when a golf ball-sized one rapped me in the head.
“Fuck!” I cried out, wincing when the pounding in my head doubled.
The door fell open, and I had no clue that I was leaning on it for support until it was gone.
I would’ve fallen straight on my face, but luckily my reflexes didn’t prove dead.
I caught myself on the doorjamb just before I would’ve died.
“Oh, shit.” Arms came around me and supported me as I was forced inside. Seconds later, I shuffled my way to the couch and practically fell into it with the girl in my arms.
“Umm,” the girl that was half-pinned underneath me said. “Officer Spurlock? Are you okay?”
Officer Spurlock.
“Sammy. Well, Samuel Adams, but everyone calls me Sammy,” I muttered into her neck. “And there’s a tree in my kitchen.”
There was a long moment of silence as that registered.
“There’s a tree in your kitchen?” she asked, sounding confused.
“Yes,” I said.
“A real one?” she confirmed.
“I assume it’s real,” I admitted. “But I didn’t actually touch it to find out. I tried to call someone, but my phone isn’t working. Can I use yours?”
She maneuvered her body until she was out from under me, and then she pushed me to the side so that I was mostly on the couch.
“I can call my parents,” she said. “But they’ve already reported several trees down in the area. And I’m not sure how much help they’d be right now.”
I agreed.
Several trees down meant they were likely over roadways.
But goddamn, I was so tired right then that I decided that maybe this could wait until the morning.
***
“Come on,” I heard said.
I opened my eyes to see that I was sitting up.
“Where?” I wondered.
“To the bedroom,” she answered.
She.
Hastings.
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” I admitted. “We barely know each other.”
She started to snort. Then snorted again. And again.
Her laughter was cute, that was for sure.
And if I could feel my face, I definitely would’ve told her that.
“Your face still works just fine,” she said. “And thank you. My sister tells me that I sound like a rabid pig when I laugh.”
“I don’t think you do,” I admitted. “My face is working? What am I doing right now?”
“You’re glaring at me,” she said.
“How do you know? I can’t see your face,” I countered.
“The lights are out, and I guessed,” she said as she helped me stand. “Now help me get you to the bedroom. I can’t get you there myself. You’re really fuckin’ big.”
“I can walk.” I paused. “For a little bit anyway. My legs feel like I’ve cemented them into concrete bricks, though. Like each one weighs fifty pounds.”