“Well, damn. I am going to miss the awe.”
Now she laughed. “Are you ready then?”
“For the sex?” he asked hopefully.
“Ha. No, but nice try.” She grabbed her bag and tossed him his. “I assume we have to walk from here.”
“There’s no way to get the Jeep past the wires.”
“Okay.” She looked at her watch. Past noon already. Unbelievable.
“Wait,” he said when she reached for the door handle. Leaning in, he pulled up her hood, his fingers warm and callused, the touch going right through all her protective layers and her inner brick wall, making itself at home right in the center of her heart.
“That’s not going to help for long,” she told him, her voice a little husky.
He kept his fingers on her, and lightly stroked her jaw. “Stay close. There’ll be underwater currents, and if your feet get swept from under you—”
“I’ll be okay. I will,” she said with soft steel when he started to speak again.
“I know.” He looked at her, then hauled her to him and kissed her hard and long, with a promise of more to come. Then, still breathing hard, they opened their doors and headed out, meeting at the back of the vehicle. Jason grabbed her hand, and together they trudged for higher ground, with Lizzy hoping that Cece—in labor or not—had done the same.
7
DOUBLE FISTING her flashlight, Cece waddled down the flight of stairs to the single-car garage beneath her condo unit, where she made the unhappy realization that the entire place had sprung a leak.
There was four inches of water swirling at her feet.
Which was perfect, really, because now it was official. The day had gone to hell in a handbasket.
She surveyed her car, which was as useless as her phone, because the garage door was shut and she had no electricity to open it. In the corner, soaking up water, was a bag of skinny clothes, also useless.
And the raft from last summer’s river trip…
No.
She couldn’t.
For a moment, she stood there in indecision—never a good state for her because being indecisive made her do things without thinking.
Stupid things.
Like having sex without a condom.
Way late to rue that decision, she reminded herself. Besides, she was getting a present out of the deal, the best present she’d ever had; she rubbed her belly. “Don’t you worry, baby. You really are the best thing to ever happen to me.”
In response, her stomach banded tightly.
Another contraction.
“Oh, God.” She clutched the hood of her car for balance and breathed through it. Then when it passed, she waddled past the car, knowing there was a manual lever somewhere, which would allow her to open the garage door by hand. She was going to have to risk her bad tires, and drive herself to the hospital.
To reach the lever she had to stand on the bucket of Pretty-In-Pink paint she’d bought on sale last week. She didn’t know if she was having a boy or girl, she’d refused to peek, but she was all for hoping. Buying the paint ahead of time was one thing—it’d been half off, and a deal she couldn’t pass up. But actually painting the walls with the pink had seemed a little bit like taunting that bitch Karma. So she’d waited.
And now she was tempting Karma anyway. Gritting her teeth, she managed to climb up onto the bucket. Barely reaching the lever, she pulled. It was much harder than she expected, and she had to tug with all her might. As the garage door slowly lifted, she lumbered down off the bucket for better leverage, sweating in spite of the chilly wind and rain flying through the opening as it widened.
And that wasn’t the only thing she could see as the door slowly rose.
She saw a pair of kick-ass motorcycle boots, topped by long, leanly muscled legs inside a set of jeans faded in all the stress points.
So not Lizzy.
As she gasped and backed up a step, another contraction hit, and her last thought as she sank to the ground was shit. Her worst nightmare was coming true—she was going to have this baby in front of a perfect stranger, and a bad boy to boot.
Just her luck.
JASON AND LIZZY SLOGGED their way along the streets toward Eastside. For now they were above the worst of the flooding, but she knew that at some point within the next half mile they’d have to turn and cut across the roads, heading down into the areas quickly filling up with runoff water from the hills.
They’d had to stop twice. Once to help a guy climb over a huge fallen pine tree to get out of his driveway, another to help two college students—one of whom had broken his leg—get back to the roadblock to where Sam and Eddie were.
Lizzy took a glance at Jason. In profile, with his hood up, backpack on, face set, he looked like a soldier. Unreadable. Impenetrable.