Aidan felt the weight of the responsibility that his brother had placed upon him. He loved his sister-in-law and his niece and nephew. Their safety was in his hands. Tommy had caught him doing something he shouldn’t yet still took that leap of faith. He hadn’t given up on Aidan yet, and Aidan needed to live up to his brother’s trust.
Tommy’s house was five miles from the ocean. But Aidan worked like hell to secure the house as if it were oceanfront, facing a direct hit. Tommy had only had time to board up a couple of windows before getting called away, so Aidan finished the job up on a high ladder, lashed by wind and rain. Anything that wasn’t nailed down in the backyard, he moved into the garage. He put rolled-up towels along the bottom of the door to stop the water flooding in the crack. It was two long hours of work in the cold rain before he dragged himself inside, wet and exhausted.
Kelly gave him some clothes of Tommy’s to change into while she threw his wet things in the dryer. He gratefully slurped down the bowl of chicken noodle soup she’d left him on the kitchen table. They still had power, but that wouldn’t last with the winds like this. Too many trees to blow down onto the electric lines. He thought they ought to prepare. Kelly filled the bathtub with water in case the pump went out, and Aidan brought the camping gear down from the attic. Lanterns, a propane stove, coolers to fill with ice and food from the fridge if they lost electricity. It was past eleven by the time Aidan sank down onto the living room sofa with a sigh. Kelly came in, her arms piled high with blankets and pillows.
“Let me make up the couch for you,” she said, as the wind roared outside. “It would be nuts for you to drive home in this.”
Aidan was torn. He wanted to stay and look after his brother’s family through the night, but he had another place he needed to protect. Kelly and the kids were safe, their house secured. But Caroline’s house was right in the path of the storm. Not only had he completely failed to secure the windows before Tommy kicked him out; he’d made things worse. The front door was now wide open, exposing everything inside to the elements. He’d left Caroline that voicemail promising to look after her house, and he’d failed to follow through. He couldn’t leave things like that.
“Thanks, Kel,” he said. “But I should be going.”
Kelly studied him with concern. “Where exactly are you going, Aidan?”
Kelly tried to manage Aidan’s life for him like Tommy did. He took it better from her than from him. He and Kelly had a big-sister/kid-brother type of friendship that meant a lot to him. She treated him with kindness rather than the scolding Tommy defaulted to. And she had this wide-open face—round and serene, with freckles and big hazel eyes. He was never able to lie to her, and he couldn’t now.
“A friend of mind has a house. It’s right in the path of the storm. I told her I’d check it out for her.”
Her face scrunched with disappointment. “I know about your friend. From what Tom says, she’s bad news, and you got in trouble once already tonight going in her house. Is it really smart to go back there?”
Aidan wanted to explain. Caroline was a flame to him, and he was the moth. If he ended as a pile of ash, that was the risk he took. His only regret would be the disappointment he caused his brother and Kelly.
“Maybe not. But I promised her,” he said.
“Promises are important. But I still think it would be better if you stayed here with us. We’re your family, Aidan. We don’t want to see anything bad happen to you. And I’m not only talking about the weather. Will you stay? Please?”
He couldn’t deny Kelly’s claim on his loyalty. He’d always been welcome in her house, even at his lowest. She’d picked him up and dusted him off more times than he could count over the years. He had a place at her table for every holiday. She was asking him to stay. As much as it pained him, he felt obligated to say yes.
“All right, I’ll stay, Kel. For you.”
“Thank you. Now get up and let me make your bed.”
She made up the sofa quickly, then pecked him on the cheek and went off to bed. Aidan tossed and turned in the darkened living room, listening to the shifts in the wind. He tried, but he couldn’t get comfortable with the decision to stay here and leave Caroline’s house undefended. Not just that, though. He was afraid that she hadn’t listened. That she was driving through this mess on her way to the beach. That she might be harmed. Half an hour passed. He got up and wandered to the kitchen, where he looked in the refrigerator. But nothing in there appealed to him. He felt too worried to eat. He went back to the living room, where his phone was buzzing on the coffee table, lighting up with Caroline’s number. He grabbed it breathlessly.
“Caroline. Are you all right? Where are you?” he said.
“At my house. It’s a disaster. Somebody broke in, set off the alarm, and ran away. Was that you? Don’t lie to me.”
This was the worst outcome imaginable. She’d driven out from the city despite his warning, only to find the place abandoned and thrown open to the storm. She’d never trust him again.
“It was me. But I can explain,” he said.
“Explain?” she said. “What the hell—”
The line began to crackle and pop. The next words out of Caroline’s mouth were garbled into a tinny, incomprehensible squawk.
“What?” he said. “You’re cutting out. Caroline? Caroline, are you there?”
Nothing.
“Caroline?”
But the phone was dead in his hand. Caroline was all alone on that wild, exposed stretch of beach, facing down the storm with no protection, believing that Aidan had betrayed her. He couldn’t stay here, protected from the storm, cozy with his family, and leave her alone to face the hurricane. He had to go to her, or he would never be able to live with himself.