Falling for Grace (Four Winds) (15 page)

Chapter
Fifteen

Grace didn't sleep well that night.  The nightmare returned, with a vengeance.  It was the same, only different.  This time, there was a maniacal, cackling laughter when she pulled on the rope that connected the drowned family members.  Her lungs were filled to bursting with the stale air, and when she screamed, the laughter reached a fever-pitch so that she couldn't hear her own scream over it.

When she managed to wake herself from the dream, she was drenched in sweat, and it was three-thirty in the morning.  Looking around the hotel room at the unfamiliar surroundings, she remembered everything that had happened in the past few days.  The storm, Rafe, Brad, and her volunteering with the clean-up crews.

Lying back in her bed, she smoothed out the covers and tried to go back to sleep, but the dream kept haunting her.  The dream itself was pretty obvious.  It was her subconscious guilt coming to the surface for not being able to save the people.  She hadn't even been around when the family had died, but the fact that they were the only casualties on the island during the storm hit her in the gut, somehow.  They had been in a house not far from where she'd lived, and if she'd known they were in trouble, she might could have helped them get to the shelter.  If she'd known about them, they might still be alive.

Groaning, she decided to go ahead and get up.  She certainly wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep tonight.  Showering to wake her body up as much as her mind was, she started the tiny coffee pot in the room to brew and got dressed.  She sat on the chair that looked out the window at the oil refineries and marveled at the beauty of the twinkling lights.  In the darkness, she couldn't tell that they were grey metal cylinders rising into the atmosphere.  She couldn't see the smoke belching noxious fumes into the air.  All she could see was twinkling lights and blue burn-off flames.  It was pretty.  For a brief moment, she imagined she was a princess in a fantasy land, overlooking her fairy kingdom waiting for her true love to return.

Shaking the image from her head, she brought herself back to reality.  They were letting personal vehicles back on the island now, so she could get an insurance adjuster to come out and declare her truck a disaster, so she could dispose of it and wait for the check from the insurance company.  It wouldn't be enough to buy another vehicle, but it would be something.  She could probably go back to the house and try to salvage what was left inside, and Bree was coming to help with that today. 

Grace looked forward to seeing her friend.  She had missed her roommates during the madness of the hurricane and needed a sense of normalcy like she needed nothing else right now.  She was living in a surreal landscape of debris and stench that she was ready to be out of.  Even the hotel, just across the great bridge, was a reminder of what she'd been through.

At five-thirty, she went to the lobby and ate some stale mini-muffins, while she waited for Bree to arrive.  She said she'd be there around seven, and Grace was tired of looking at her hotel room.

When Bree got there, they rode over the big bridge to
Galveston Island, Grace looking at the water below.  You could hardly tell there had been a storm, if you didn't look at the houses and shore line.  Shingles ripped off rooftops and washed-up debris gave it away.  But the water was the same cloudy, brownish gray color that it always was.

When they got to their house, or what was left of it, Bree gasped.

"Oh my gosh, Grace.  I can't believe you stayed here."

"Well, technically, I stayed at the shelter.  We were only here until the roof left us."

FEMA inspectors had come out and declared the house safe enough to remove belongings, but not to live in.  So Bree and Grace went to work, gathering everything that could be salvaged and loading her car with pots and pans, canned goods, soggy clothing, towels, and various irreplaceable knick knacks. 

"This is a disaster."  Bree's voice was despondent.

"It's just going to be a lot of work.  You should go house hunting tomorrow.  Mark called yesterday and told me I was working tomorrow, so I won't be able to help."

"Nicole is supposed to be back."

"Good, you'll have somebody to help you."

"This is just so depressing.  I'm glad you talked everybody into getting the renter's insurance.  At least we can replace what we've lost."

"Best twenty dollars a month I've ever spent."

"But a huge pain in the ass."

"Quit griping and get back to work.  The sooner we get through this, the sooner we can go shopping for new stuff."  Grace tried to be positive for Bree's sake.

Bree drove back over the bridge and deposited Grace at a Laundromat, before going to the hotel to load the room with car loads of items and going back to the
Island for more.

It was a long day, made even longer by the tedium of the Laundromat, and Grace was over the solitude.  She wanted to be around people, but Bree was seeing the effects of the disaster for the first time and wasn't all that positive to be around at the moment.  She needed somebody with a better attitude.

Spending time with Bree today had been good, but her friend was depressed by the extent of the damage and hadn't seen the bright side, yet.  They had options.  There were so many people that had been displaced by the storm that didn't have any insurance or family members nearby.  They would possibly have to move their entire families off the island for a period of time, maybe even permanently.

Bree would see it, soon enough. 

The next day, on the stand, Grace's mind was working on overdrive as her eyes scanned her zone.  It was almost September, and some schools had started. 
Galveston wouldn't lose too much business from the hurricane, as most planned vacations had already taken place.  The island would get everything cleaned up and back in working order, and life would go on.

Brad was avoiding her at headquarters, and Grace was okay with that. 

Now that she was on the stand, held captive by her thoughts, they kept turning to Rafe.  She hadn't heard from him since he'd left, and she wondered about him.

She hadn't known he had a brother.  In fact she didn't know all that much about his personal life at all.  He was a good dancer.  He could cook.  He looked great in a towel.  He had a brother.

Grace sighed.  She wanted to know so much more about him.  Where did he grow up?  What were his parents like?  His favorite color?  Maybe, if he ever came back, she could ask him those questions, and more.  Maybe they could explore the chemistry between them.

She sighed as she remembered the chemistry, a pool of warmth spreading through her insides with the thought of Rafe's hand on her body, his kiss.

Her eyes continued scanning the waters, as her mind continued wandering.

Nicole and Bree were both in her hotel room when she got back that night, and she was relieved at the sight of normalcy.

"Hey, when did you get here?"  She hugged her friend.

"This morning.  How are you?"

She shrugged.  "I'm okay, I guess."

Nicole, who hadn't been around for any of the drama with Rafe, then Brad, had apparently not been filled in by Bree.  "You don't look okay."

"It's been a rough few days.  A family died in the storm.  I helped find them.  Rafe left.  I got into it with Brad."  She shrugged again, really not wanting to rehash everything again.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"What do you mean?  Nothing."

"So, you're not going to go after Rafe?  He likes you."

"He's not here, is he?"  Why did everybody think she needed to have Rafe in her life?  It was starting to get a little monotonous.

"When is he coming back?"

"I have no idea.  He didn't say."

"What happened while he was here?"  Nicole demanded.

"Nothing."

"You're telling me, two attractive people were stranded by candle light, survived a tornado and a hurricane together, lived in a shelter for days, then shared a hotel room, and nothing happened?"

"Yeah.  I mean, we shared beds a couple of times, but it was all platonic.  He's just a really nice guy."  She wasn't about to tell them about the kiss she'd shared with Rafe.  There was nothing platonic about that.

Nicole raised her eyebrows.  "Shared beds?"

Grace shrugged.  "I had my nightmare again.  He calmed me down.  No big deal."

Nicole scoffed, "My ass."

Grace dropped the subject, and got up to go shower.

Chapter Sixteen

The next week passed slowly.  The girls worked, and hunted for a new place to live in their free time.  By the following weekend, there were a few prospects, and Grace eagerly looked forward to visiting them all with her roommates.  She just wished Rafe were back.  She'd called him a couple of times, and he hadn't answered his cell phone.  Since he hadn't called back, she didn't know what to think.  Maybe the connection they'd seemed to have had been her imagination.

She sat in the stand, scanning her zone, trying to look forward to the next evening.  After work, they were all going to look at their possible new homes.  It just seemed wrong to be doing it without Rafe.  Not having any idea when or if he was coming back gave her a hopeless feeling she didn't want to dwell on.

There weren't many people in the water today, just four, as she counted.  There were a few more on the beach, but it was a Wednesday and most locals were at work, and the tourists hadn't come back in full force after the storm.  It was September now, and school was in session across the state. 

Her eyes scanned her zone, and she noticed a man that she hadn't seen out there before.  That was strange, but he also seemed to be in distress.  Grace grabbed binoculars and confirmed that yes, he was struggling in the water.  She blew her whistle and ran for the open gulf with her tube.

As she swam out to him, she ran over the steps to a successful save inside her head automatically, like she always did.  The green haze took over her vision, and she welcomed the familiarity of the thought process.  She pumped her arms and legs furiously to reach the man struggling in the water.  As she got closer, the green haze became more vivid, and a voice inside her head said, "Hang on, Grace.  Wait."

She ignored the voice, continuing on her path to the save.  She had to get this man to shallow waters before he got into trouble.

She swam up to the man, and realized it was Damien.  She handed him her tube and asked, "Are you in trouble?"

He stopped struggling, and a wicked smile played
on his lips.  "Not really."

Pushing the tube aside, he pulled Grace’s head to his in a conquering kiss that sent her senses reeling.  As his mouth crushed against hers, his tongue swept past her lips and toyed with hers, sending frosty tendrils of a strange desire slithering through her veins.  Against her will, her arms wrapped around his neck, and she pressed herself closer, continuing to tread water with her feet.

Grace realized this was completely inappropriate, at the same time the voice inside her head told her so.

“Grace, what are you doing?”

Another haze descended in her mind, dimming the green haze, and Grace felt an unnatural surealness overtake her.  She was on duty.  She was in the water.  She was macking down with her save.  And she found that she didn’t care.  Damien’s hands clutched her neck and waist to his body, not letting go, and Grace found herself pushing closer to him.  This was wild, dangerous, and she wanted more.

Damien broke the kiss and leaned his head against hers, fanning cool breaths across her face.  “Come with me, Grace.”

“Come where?”  She started to come back to reality, but when she looked back at the beach, she saw that nobody was watching her.  No other lifeguards were rushing to her stand to take over while she was in the water.  She wondered if this was really happening, or if it was some weird variation of her dream.  It certainly held the same dream-like qualities.  It just didn’t seem real.

Damien
grabbed the tube, which was still strapped to Grace, and seizing her arm in the same motion.  He pulled her under the water.