Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
“My guess is that there’s one person who knows.” His eyes turn dark and cold. “And the second the storm passes, I’m going to find her.”
Tricia.
“What if she won’t tell you?” I ask, feeling stupid the second the words leave my mouth because I already know the answer before it leaves his lips.
“She will if she wants to keep breathing.”
Chapter 6
Ray
I understand now why the phrase the calm before the storm is used. Because in the hours before Hurricane Polly brings her wrath upon Logan’s Beach, everything is unusually still, including my usually racing heart which is frozen as it waits for what’s to come.
The sky is clear of clouds. The breeze isn’t gentle; it’s nonexistent, as if holding its breath. Not a blade of grass is swaying. Not a bird is chirping. The bay waters don’t dare to ripple.
Even the smell of salt and fish that usually lingers in the air is more salt and less fish. Like even they know that it’s time to swim the fuck out.
Unfortunately, I don’t think our unborn child received the same message.
The baby is coming. I feel it in the bones the same way I feel the shift in the air as the storm grows closer.
Please, just stay put a little while longer, little one. Just give me two days. Please. Not just because I’m a few weeks early, but because I don’t want the baby born into chaos and that’s exactly what life in our house and in our town looks like right now.
Pure and utter chaos.
The pains I’ve been feeling are still far apart and only as strong as a cramp, but they are growing more and more consistent with each hour that passes. The roads are closed. There will be no heading to a hospital anytime soon. If only you can wait until you’re scheduled c-section.
If the new baby is as stubborn as it’s father or myself, there’s no amount of reasoning that’s going to keep it inside of me if it’s hell bent on entering the world.
“That’s it. It’s time to close this one, too.” King says, placing the last remaining shutter over the window and climbing down the ladder. He folds it and stores it on a strap hooked to the wall in the open area under the house.
I follow him, but as soon as I take a step, I feel another pain. This one stronger than the others.
Stubborn. I knew it.
I press my hands over my belly and suck in a deep breath until the pain passes.
“Moving a lot?” King asks, pulling away and rubbing his hand over my stomach.
I nod and blink back my unshed tears. “We’re fine. Just a little pain. It was the same way with Nicole Grace. Remember? There’s no more room in there, so all of those pesky vital organs are getting in the way, not to mention my spine.”
King holds me up even though the pain has passed, and I fold myself into his body, seeking support of a different kind. “That doctor is a fucking pussy,” he mutters.
I smile against his chest. “Why?”
“Because, he’s a fucking coward.”
Now, I have to laugh. “He’s a coward? Why, because he’s out of town on his scheduled vacation three weeks before the baby is due?”
“That’s part of it.”
“And because he won’t cater to your demand for him to find a flight that doesn’t exist because the airport is shut down and fly back into ground zero of a hurricane zone where there’s no power and the roads aren’t passable so he can deliver our baby if and when we need him?”
“You sum it up better than I can.”
“You’re impossible.”
“That might be true, but I’m still going to break every bone in that bastard’s neck the next time I see him.”
I pull back to swat at his chest. King catches my wrist and holds it against his chest. His eyes search mine, and I look away, uncomfortable under his determined gaze. Worried that he’ll see everything I’m feeling inside because if he’s sees it, then it will be real, and it’s the last thing either of us need right now.
“Look at me, Pup.”
I lift my chin, and reluctantly, my eyes meet his. “I’m here for you. You know that, right?” he asks into my hair. “You know that I’ve got you?” His words are about more than just the baby. There’s a pain in his voice that packs a punch much stronger than the pains in my body.
I know he’s here for me. That he’s got me. I’ve always known that. I hate that he could think for one second that I doubt that. That I doubt him. It’s others that I doubt. It’s the storm that I doubt. It’s my feelings that I doubt. It’s every fucking thing else. But not King. Never King. “I know. And I’m behind you. All the way. Always.”