Do you have a sheet of plywood for that window?
I hope so. The tree just outside his bedroom was whipping back and forth, dangerously close to the blown-in window. Glass shards lay across the bed, on top of the sheets and blankets where hed been only a few minutes ago. Good thing you woke me up.
You were sleeping there? Lizzy asked, sounding horrified as she pulled free.
Yeah. He shut the bedroom door, closing off the wind and rain freely flying in, and looked at her.
Her hair had been demurely pulled back into a low ponytail when shed first arrived, but was loose now. The dark honey strands fell to her shoulders, with long side swept bangs framing her face.
Her mouth was still wet.
Which made him want to kiss her again. Forget the storm beating the shit out of his house, forget Cece out there in it-
Okay, he couldnt forget that. He needed to get his mind off the fantasy currently running in high def in his head, the one that had him pushing Lizzy to the wall and kissing her again until she didnt look so worried, and then taking that kiss to its natural course, which involved no clothes and her crying out his name as she came.
But life was rarely that good to him.
So he turned her back to the bathroom door, where the only window was narrow and high up inside the shower. Change. Im going to the garage to look for plywood.
The electricity is out.
Yeah, its probably going to stay out for a good long time, too. What the hell. He slid his fingers into her hair again, smoothing it back off her face for the sheer pleasure of feeling her warm skin beneath his palm.
She caught his hand in hers. Before, she said. When I screamed? You came running.
He looked into her eyes, and there was a long beat between them, where the icy air didnt seem cold at all but rather shimmering with heat.
The heat coming from them.
The heat coming from them.
Hed survived the past two months by putting aside emotions and feelings. It was a tactic that had served him well.
But he was feeling now, big-time.
I slay my own dragons these days, Jason, she said softly, and went back into the bathroom.
At the sound of the lock hitting home, he smiled grimly. She didnt need him. Message received.
He found no plywood in the garage, which meant that the room was going to be a wreck before this was over. Hoping that would be the extent of the damage, he came back into the kitchen and took another food foray. This time, in the dubious light of the morning, he found a box of crackers and Cheez Whiz.
Worked for him.
Loading up crackers and stuffing them into his mouth, he called his mom. She answered on the first ring, breathless and excited. My baby! Honey, are you back?
Yeah. At the sound of her love practically pouring through the phone line, he let out a breath and a reluctant smile. You okay?
Oh, sweetheart, Im fine. Tell me youre coming here so I can fatten you up and see for myself youre in one piece.
Im in one piece.
Are you sure? Because the last time we talked, you were in such a bad place-
That had been right after Matts death. Hed been a mess. Mom. He paused, his throat tightening. Im good.
Ill be the judge of that. When will I see you?
Soon as this storm is over. Is Shelly okay? The house? You both safe?
We arent flooding, were both staying put, and were fine. I love you, Jason.
Love you, too, Mom.
Prove it and get up here as soon as you can.
He promised to do that and shut his phone, resuming the stuffing of his face with the crackers and Cheez Whiz until Lizzy came into the room.
He still couldnt wrap his brain around it. Shed once had a way of looking at him, of seeing things in him that had made him uncomfortable, to say the least. He hadnt liked looking into those sweet orbs and seeing himself reflected back, because hed never liked what hed seen.
Of course she was no longer looking at him the way she used to. Shed learned to temper her emotions. And shed gotten good at it, too, because she was staring right at him and he had absolutely no idea what she was thinking.
She wore his sweats, which swam on her. Covered from chin to toe, she was now shapeless, which was good. Now maybe he could forget how shed looked when hed first flicked on the light, when her thin scrubs had been drenched through and clinging to her curves. Warmer? he asked.
Yes. Thanks. She narrowed in on the jar in his hand. Breakfast of champions?
He turned the jar in his palm and read the ingredients. Hey, its got five percent of my daily required protein. Practically a vitamin.
She actually smiled, and whoa baby, that was new. He hadnt seen many smiles out of her in their high school years. Shed been too shy, too reserved. The smile transformed her face, and while he stared stupidly at her, she came close and read over his shoulder. Its ninety-five percent fat, Jase.
Jase. No one had called him that sincewell, since her, and he laughed, his first in a good long time. Ready to roll?
Yeah. Listen- She broke off to glance over his shoulder, at the window above the sink, and her entire body went tense. Move! she cried, adding a shove packed with surprising strength for a little thing, taking them both down to the tile floor with a bone-jarring thud.
Above them the kitchen window shattered, spraying in glass and wind and water, all of which rained down over the top of them.
Jason managed not to bash his head on the floor as he circled his arms around Lizzy, trying to cushion her fall but not quite succeeding. Lying there flat on his back with her sprawled over the top of him, he tightened his grip when she gasped and wriggled. Dont move, he demanded. The glass. He slid his fingers into her hair and stared up at her, searching her face. Are you okay?
She craned her neck to look behind them, where hed been standing, where the majority of the glass had hit. Rain was flying in freely now, pushed by the brutal wind. The branch that had broken the window shimmied and danced in the opening. That almost got you, she breathed.
Well, it didnt, thanks to you. He turned her head back to his. And do you ever answer a question?
Im fine. And youre not, she said, pointing to where blood was blooming through the material of his shirt from a slice on his upper arm. She started to push herself up but her grimace tipped him off and he held her still, reaching for her hand, which was also cut.
He sat up, which meant that she was sitting, too, straddling him. In the back of his mind he registered the fact that it was a very nice position to be in as he ran his gaze over her carefully, looking for-Damn. Another cut. Gently he ran a finger over her cheekbone, which was beginning to bleed. Just a nick, though.
Im okay. Using nothing but thigh muscles, she stood, then reached down with her uninjured hand to pull him up. Very carefully she brushed the glass from him, until he grabbed her wrist and moved them both from the shattered window, back into the living room. Sit, he said, gesturing to the couch, going for his first-aid kit from his bag.
I will if you will.
So youre still stubborn, he noted, amused at both of them.
As a mule. And Im the nurse, remember? She grabbed the first-aid kit from him as he sat next to her.
Im a trained medic. He grabbed it back, holding it over her head.
So, what, brute strength trumps brains?
Look at you, he murmured. Youve grown claws. Im so proud.
I call it a backbone.
His smile faded. Ah, Lizzy. You always had that.
And while she stared at him in surprise, he got to work cleaning, gauzing and wrapping up her palm with medical tape. He swiped her cheek with antiseptic, then let her repeat the favor on him.
If were done playing doctor she murmured when shed finished.
He had no idea what it said about him that he loved this new version of her, all tough and no longer so reserved. Once upon a time shed stirred protectiveness and affection within him, and definitely the normal horniness of a teenage boy. All of which hed hidden.
The woman shed grown into stirred a hell of a lot more. But what shocked him was that he didnt feel like hiding from any of it.
What are you grinning about? she asked.
Other than he had his first hard-on in eight weeks? I like this Lizzy.
You dont know this Lizzy.
True. But as he looked out the window into the sheer destruction of the day, he had a feeling he was going to get to know her pretty quickly. I knew you once.
For a minute.
Longer than that, he chided gently. We were friends.
She laughed. Friends? We werent friends, Jason. I did your English papers, and you
I?
You were a jerk.
Not all the time.
All the time.
Come on. What about the day I taught you to kiss after that idiot Paul Drucker said you kissed like a poodle?
I try not to remember that day, she said bitterly.
I dont know. It was a pretty good day for me.
She turned away. I dont want to talk about it.
About which, the fact that we kissed behind the bleachers until you had it right? Or how afterward, you-
She sent him a glacial glance over her shoulder. I said I dont want to talk about it. She paused, then let out a sigh. But thanks for teaching me how to kiss.
You are most welcome.
You know She narrowed her eyes. Now that I think about it, the whole teaching process took a lot longer than it should have.
Did it?
Yes.
He smiled. You kissed like heaven, Lizzy, from the get-go. Paul was an idiot and an ass.
So you only pretended I needed kissing tutoring? Why?
Hello, I was seventeen.
With an annoyed sound, she walked away.
Yeah, hed been an ass, but only because of what had happened next, the thing she didnt want to talk about, and for the first time in all these years, he remembered, and felt regret. Lizzy-
Im going.
Weve been through this. If you go, I go.
Im sure you had other plans today.
Yeah, he agreed readily enough. I had a whole list-sleep, food and sex. He smiled tightly. Not that I was going to get any of that. Theres nothing good to eat here, and as its just me, sex wouldnt be much fun.
She looked at him. Is this what you do in the Guard? she asked. Rescue people?
A lot, yeah. Or in the case of Matt, not.
Are you going back to it?
That seems to be the million-dollar question.
She let out a half smile, full of sympathy. Still decompressing?
Yeah. More than she could possibly know, and it was a reminder, a cold slap of hard reality that he had decisions to make for a future he didnt want to face. So it was him who turned away this time, needing to break eye contact, needing to not let her in his head.