The sound of rain on the windows and the drip in the bucket in the room across the hall awoke Rose the next morning. She’d fallen asleep against Hud’s chest, his arm holding her tightly, and they were in the same position when she awoke. She rose up on an elbow to find him already awake.
“Good mornin’, gorgeous,” he whispered and brushed a sweet kiss across her forehead.
She’d heard it said that home was where the heart was. It wasn’t a town or a particular house, or even a country. If that was true, she was home, because her heart was happy that morning. “Good mornin’ to you, sexy cowboy.” She gave him a peck on the lips.
“Want a repeat of last night before we get ready for church?” he asked.
“If we start that, we might not make it to church.” She bailed out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom. “Want to join me in the shower?”
Hud threw back the covers and beat her to the bathroom. He’d already adjusted the water to the right temperature when she arrived, and he helped her step over the edge of the bathtub. “Are you going to wash your hair?” he asked.
“Yep.” She nodded.
“Then turn around and let me do it for you.” He picked up the shampoo, washed her hair, and then massaged her scalp.
“That’s even more wonderful than the foot massage,” she told him.
“We still have conditioner to do.” He did a repeat of the previous process, and not once did he get soap in her eyes. Now it was her turn. She picked up a washcloth, soaped it up, started with his face, and worked her way down his body—slowly, savoring every single moment.
Having a guy wash her hair and then stand still and let her touch him like this was the best thing next to sex that she’d ever experienced. She could sure get used to a permanent commitment, she thought, if this was what that meant.
When she’d rinsed him off, she looped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his. “Ever had shower sex?”
“Nope,” he said.
“Me either. Want to give up our shower sex virginity?” With a little hop she wrapped her legs around his body.
His lips landed on hers and he took a couple of steps forward to brace her back against the wall of the tub on the far end. “Yes, ma’am, I’d love that.” He maneuvered a hand between them and in a few thrusts, it was all over for both of them.
He turned around until his back was against the wall, and slid down with her still in his lap. “Wow! Too quick, but wow!”
“Amazing! We’ve got to do that again, sometime.” She wiggled free of his embrace, stood up, rinsed off, and then stepped out of the shower. “If we’re going to make it to church and pray for our sins, we’d better not do it right now, though.”
She wrapped a white towel around her hair and one around her body. He reached out of the tub and tugged at the one from her body. “I’ll take a chance on getting struck by lightning if you’re willin’ to stay in this morning and take another shower with me.”
“Not me.” She snatched the towel from his hands and wrapped it back around herself. “I’ll meet you in the foyer in fifteen minutes. I’ll be dressed for church, and you’ll just have time to get out to the ranch and change.”
“But I’m hungry,” he whined with a grin on his face.
“I’ll bring along that package of doughnuts.” She waved at the door. “You can eat them on the way.”
She dried her hair and twisted it up into a pile of curls on top of her head, slipped on underwear, and then put on a long-sleeved, dark blue dress. Her feet still hurt from the night of dancing, and combat boots or even her one pair of dress boots didn’t look right with the Sunday dress, so she went downstairs in her bare feet to get her flats. She passed Hud on the bottom step where he was putting on his shirt.
“First time I ever got dressed one piece of clothing at a time on the stairs,” he told her.
“Lots of firsts last night and this morning,” she said. “Maybe I should mark them all on the calendar so we won’t forget.”
“Honey, everything about last night and this morning is branded into my brain. No way I’ll ever lose these memories.” He reached out and brought her to him for another hard kiss.
“Mine too,” she told him as she pulled away and went for her shoes—and the doughnuts.
They were in the truck and headed toward Sunset when Hud’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his hip pocket and answered it, “Good mornin’, brother. I’ll take over the feeding chores—”
Hud’s eyes went wide and he glanced up in the rearview mirror. “Holy smokin’ hell! Yes, yes, yes, we’re going to have to outrun it. Meet you and Nikki in the cellar.”
“What?” Rose asked.
“Turn around and look behind us,” Hud told her.
“Is that what I think it is?” she asked.
“It’s a tornado and it’s coming right through Bowie. Tag says that there’s another one on the ground at Park Springs coming toward Sunset. The closest shelter is the storm cellar at the ranch.” He talked faster than the speedometer, which kept climbing all the way to ninety miles an hour.
The storm behind them was still visible when they went through Sunset and made the turn to head to the ranch, but now Rose could see the second one out her window. It was swirling with a long, wide tail that was busy throwing all kinds of debris around. Hud made the final turn into the lane to the ranch on two wheels and gunned it all the way to the house. He slammed on the brakes and came to a long, greasy stop.
“Go run around to the back of the house,” he said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Rose didn’t need to be told twice. She stepped out into an eerie quietness where everything had a slightly green cast. It all changed when she reached the porch and started around the house. Suddenly, it sounded like a freight train was coming right at her. She froze for a second, and then she was flying. She landed hard on Hud’s shoulder with her arms and legs flopping in the hard wind like a rag doll. She saw a piece of sheet metal blow past her head, and then a child’s teddy bear brushed her cheek.
All she could do was hang on until he set her down at the top of a set of narrow stairs, and she rushed down into a cellar. Red bounded over to her and raised up on his hind legs, putting his paws on her stomach. Hud came right in behind her, pulled the door down, pushed the dog back into the cellar, and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Are you hurt? Did anything hit you?” He checked her face, and her arms, and scanned the rest of her body.
“I’m fine,” she told him. “I think a teddy bear went past me, but it was all so fast.”
“Glad y’all made it, but that was way too close of a call. We were worried that you’d be right in the eye of it. Didn’t you check the weather this morning?” Tag let out a big lungful of air as he sat down beside Nikki.
“Didn’t even think about the weather,” Hud said. “We were just coming out here so I could get ready for church when you called. I hope we don’t get too much damage.”
“We’ll be lucky if we’ve got houses when we get out of here,” Nikki said. “I expect that as soon as it’s over I’d better call the hospital and see if I’m needed.”
“And me and Tag will be out with the fire department, taking care of downed trees and electrical lines,” Hud said.
“I’m a translator, if anyone needs one,” Rose offered.
“If you’re serious, you can come with me,” Nikki said. “We have a huge Mexican population around here. It would be good to have someone who speaks Spanish on hand.”
“I’d be glad to help.” Rose slumped down into a metal folding chair. “That was scary.”
“Tornados always are,” Hud yelled above the noise of debris hitting the sheet metal covering the door to the cellar.
In some ways, it seemed like they’d been in the small underground place forever, and yet it was really less than fifteen minutes. Everything went strangely quiet after the storm had passed through, and then the first drops of rain began to ping on the cellar door.
Tag raised the door, and Red ran out ahead of everyone else. He made a beeline for the back porch and yipped for someone to hurry up and let him inside. Tag and Nikki went out next, and Tag called out that the house was still standing, but there were lots of shingles strewn about the ground.
Hud and Rose were the last ones to leave, and he closed the cellar door behind him. He pointed to a huge tree, now down with its roots sticking up every which way. “Looks like we’ll be cuttin’ up that one for firewood.”
Rose ran toward the porch and let the dog inside. She followed him with Nikki right behind her. Nikki was making a call on her phone before she even made it through the utility room and into the kitchen.
She listened for a few seconds, ended the call, and turned to Rose. “It’s all hands on deck, so don’t even take your coat off.”
Hud and Tag came in, shed their coats, and both of them looked up at the ceiling. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t have leaks,” Tag said.
“Rose and I are going to the hospital.” Nikki stopped long enough to give Tag a quick peck on the lips and then ran out toward a truck.
“See you later,” Rose said as she followed her and got into a vehicle pretty similar to Hud’s.
On the way to Sunset, she and Nikki saw a lot of barn roofs that had been torn off. They made it up to the turnoff for Bowie, and that’s where the real destruction began to show its ugly face. A house would be flattened and the two on either side of it would only have a few shingles blown off their roofs. A convenience store had no outside walls, and yet bottles of wine were still sitting intact on the shelves. The bare trees were covered in wet paper and clothing, and Rose even saw a teddy bear like the one that had swiped past her face.
She held her breath when they got near the Rose Garden Bed-and-Breakfast, and let it out in a long whoosh when she saw the damage. “Sweet Jesus and all the angels in heaven,” she whispered. The place was still standing, but shingles were missing and the porch swing was tangled up in the oak tree in the front yard. Aunt Molly’s car was wrapped around a pecan tree across the street.
“Do you need to stop and check the inside?” Nikki asked.
“Not in this rain. I can check on it later,” she answered. “But I do need to call my aunt.”
Molly answered on the first ring. “We’re just about to go out for an early supper. What’s up?”
Rose explained what had happened in as few words as she could. “We’re lucky, Aunt Molly. The house beside the B&B was flattened and all of the ones across the street have massive damage.”
“Yes, we are, and if anyone needs a place to sleep, you give them a room free of charge,” Molly said. “I think I should come home. Me and the Fab Five are getting bored and homesick. I’m going to talk to them, and we’ll book the first flight we can get.”
“I can’t even come and get you,” Rose told her.
“Not to worry. A car and a porch swing can be replaced. I’m just glad the B&B is still standing,” Molly said. “Where were you when it hit? Are you hurt? Did you go to the basement?”
“Hud and I were on the way to church,” Rose said. “We barely made it to his ranch and into the cellar when all hell broke loose. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
“Where are you right now?” Molly asked.
“In the car with Nikki. I’m going to help out at the hospital,” she replied.
“That’s good. I’ll be home in two days, tops, maybe even late tomorrow night,” Molly told her. “And don’t worry about anything. God works in mysterious ways.”
“What did she say?” Nikki asked as she parked her car in the employee part of the hospital parking lot.
“That God works in mysterious ways. I thought there would be crying and gnashing of teeth, but she was pretty cool about it.” Rose filled her in on the rest of the conversation.
“I want to grow up to be just like her and the Fab Five. Nothing fazes them, and they usually make a big joke about things we’d have a meltdown over.” Nikki picked up her purse and headed toward the emergency room entrance.
They walked into chaos—people in the waiting room, the emergency room cubicles full, and a receptionist who didn’t speak a word of Spanish. Nikki went to get a visitor’s badge for Rose, while Rose got straight to work translating for the beleaguered staff.
Her phone pinged with a message from Hud: Have you seen the B&B? Are you OK?
She sent back one: Yes. It’s still standing, and Aunt Molly is coming home. I’m fine.
Nikki returned with a clip-on badge, then led her back to a cubicle where a little boy had gotten separated from his parents during the storm. She sat down beside him, took his hand in hers, and translated his French for the doctor.
“He’s from Haiti and he’s five years old,” Rose said. “Is it all right if I go out into the waiting room and see if I can locate his mother?”
“Sure it is,” the doctor said. “I need her permission to treat him.”
Rose hurried down the hall, busted through the double doors, and called out in French about the little boy looking for his mama. With tears in her eyes, a small woman pushed her way through the crowd, asking if her son was all right. Rose took her by the hand and led her back to the cubicle where Nikki, the doctor, and the little boy waited. The child opened his arms and his mother went right to him.
“Now they need you back in the waiting area,” Nikki said. “You are a godsend today, Rose.”
“Glad to help out,” she said.
And I thought my skills were so limited, she thought as she ran down the short hallway.