Storm Watch(46)
She slammed it back into the water, and unfortunately right into a pole. Before he could react, she went flying in the water. He spared one blink of an eye to sigh and think “shit!” before he dove in after her.
She saved herself so that by the time he got to her, she didn’t need him. But he still kept his hands on her, helping her into the boat.
“Thanks.”
She said it so begrudgingly he had to let out a short laugh as he hoisted himself up to the edge of the raft and looked at her. “And you should know, I kiss better than Dustin.”
She stared at him, then planted a hand in the middle of his chest and shoved, dunking him back into the water.
LIZZY LOVED HER neighborhood. It had gone south in the eighties, been revitalized in the nineties, and had stood still in time since, so the houses were far more affordable than on the other side of town.
The water level hadn’t risen as high here, only a few feet. Most houses they passed hadn’t flooded, thanks to their concrete footings and foundations.
But the devastation still shocked her. Trees down. Cars buried under them. Roofs destroyed. Yards gone.
And it was still raining.
“Are you hanging in okay?” he asked quietly.
She looked at him, then closed her eyes. “Don’t be nice.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’ll confuse me.”
He blinked, then shook his wet head. “Okay, you’re going to have to explain that to me.”
“I really want to stay mad at you. So if you don’t mind, you need to go back to being an ass.”
“And you’ll go back to what?”
“Being Lizzy. A sister. A nurse. It’s what I do, it’s what makes me happy.”
“And a soon-to-be doctor,” he reminded her.
Right. How had she forgotten that? “Yes, but the point is the happy part.”
“Everyone should do what makes them happy.”
“Yes,” she whispered, wondering why then she didn’t feel that way.
They turned the corner to her street, where they were able to abandon the raft and wade the rest of the way in. They passed her neighbor’s house; Mike’s okay, not too badly damaged. Her house was the last on the street. She’d lost a tree in her front yard, which had missed her roof by inches, but at least she still had a roof. She stared at the place in relief. “I half expected it to be gone.”
It was tiny inside, postage-stamp tiny, with the kitchen and living room all together, and two little bedrooms off a small hallway, with one bathroom between them, but it was hers. All hers, cozy and neat, just how she’d left it.
And empty. “She’s not here.”
Jason walked through, his big, wet body making the rooms appear even smaller. He stopped in front of her, running his hands up and down her arms, making her realize she was still shivering. “Which meant she really did get out. That’s a good thing, Lizzy.”
Nodding, she tried to turn away, but he held her. “About us.”
“Jason—”
“You stayed in Santa Rey when you could have left and gotten the life you wanted for yourself. That’s admirable.”
“I stayed because my sister needed me. We’ve been over this. You’d have done the same.”
“Maybe. My family means everything to me, so yeah, probably. But, Lizzy, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that at some point, you have to think of yourself.”
The words, softly spoken and utterly from the heart, further compromised her calm. “I think of myself plenty. Hello, medical school in the fall.”
“Before that. In the here and now. What do you do for yourself that makes you happy?”
Kissing you… “Okay, so I’ve been busy. Look, you’re one to talk. You don’t do anything for yourself, either.”
“I’m on leave. I plan on doing plenty for myself.”
The look accompanying that sentence singed her nerve endings and had her nipples hardening. “I’m not having this conversation,” she said.
“Just one more thing then.”
“No.”
He slid a hand up her back, gently curving his fingers around the nape of her neck to tilt her head to his. “I like that you were stubborn enough to make your love of medicine work for you, even when becoming a doctor didn’t work out back then. Now make something else work for you, as well. Something besides work.”
“And I suppose by something, you mean you.”
A ghost of a smile curved his mouth. “Well, I am standing right here.”
“And leaving, soon enough.”
His eyes never left hers. “Yeah. But what if I wasn’t?”
She stared at him, her heart kicking hard. “Then I am. Leaving. Besides, you’re not looking for a relationship.”