*The kids were in bed, Monster was fed and crashed out under the couch, and Katelyn felt boneless with pleasure. It was like she had been chained, almost crushed, by worry and concerns that were somehow miraculously disintegrating. Some far off part of her brain knew it was only a temporary break, but she’d take it. She’d take it! Right now, it was just her and Brian and—
“Are you sure?” Brian’s voice was as soft as crushed velvet, and the throaty joy in his whisper, despite all the awfulness of the past few days, raised gooseflesh along her skin.
“Yes,” she said. “More sure than I’ve ever been.” She pressed her lips against his neck, his jaw, his mouth. . . . Her insides quaked when he kissed her back. His fingers laced through hers and he ran his thumb back and forth across her knuckles in an unconscious, constant loop. It was infinitely comforting, this soft, repeating reminder that he was with her. She marveled at it—and was completely conscious of the irony. If Steve hadn’t flipped out and attacked Jayda, she might never have grabbed the courage to let herself completely go for Brian, heart, body and soul.
Brian had just reached beneath her shirt and ran his hands up and over her ribcage when the phone rang.
Katelyn closed her eyes and shuddered beneath the weight of Brian’s still fully clothed body suspended over hers, but this tremor was not from desire. She knew deep in her blood, the same way you see lightning before you hear it strike, that the call would be anything but good.
*
“This is a terrible idea,” Brian said, his normally cheerful face one big scowl.
“It is,” Katelyn agreed, already off the couch and at the door, shoving her feet into rubber boots. The night storm had intensified. A howling wind rattled the window panes and shrieked through the trees. Rain pounded the roof and ground in punishing sheets. “But I can’t not try to help.”
He frowned and didn’t say anything.
She shoved her arms into the sleeves of her windbreaker. “Will you stay here and watch the kids for me?”
He still didn’t say anything.
“I can call Aisha. It’s all right.”
“You don’t want me to come with you?”
Katelyn reached up and stroked his cheek. “More than anything,” she admitted. “I’m terrified—but I think it will only make things worse.”
“I just . . . I mean, maybe it would be better if he did . . . ” He trailed off miserably.
She shook her head, knowing exactly what he was thinking. “It might seem like that now,” her voice broke with guilt, knowing she’d sometimes hoped for the same thing, “but it wouldn’t be . . . not in the long run.”
He nodded. “I’ll stay with Lacey and Sawyer. Go—but come back safe, please.”
Katelyn stepped out onto the porch. The wind kicked hard, slamming the door and separating her from Brian with a loud, final sounding bang.