The Big 5-Oh! (24 page)

“Hey, girl. Didn’t expect me back so soon, did you?” she asked as she sat down on the sofa and pulled her cell phone out of her bag. “Me neither,” she continued as she dialed. “It's raining cats and Boofers out there, and my flight got canceled, so you’re stuck with me, at least for tonight. Oh, hi. Hallie? It's Liv.”

The wind pounded against the walls at the back of the house, and Liv jumped as a large, unidentified item flew across the patio, past the kitchen window, and then thudded against the far wall. She peered outside as water sloshed over the side of the pool and Jared hurried around the patio securing chairs and collecting anything light enough to be carried away with another big gust.

Liv watched him for a moment more, and then she pulled on lobster claw oven mitts to remove the lasagna from the oven. She set the glass baking dish down on the stovetop and turned around to find Jared standing on the other side of the counter. He exploded with pops of laughter when he saw her there, her lobster claw hands raised in front of her.

“Only Josie,” he exclaimed, shaking his head. “Who else would buy those?”

“The lasagna looks like it has spinach and mushrooms and onions,” she told him, peering over the baking dish. “Maybe green peppers. I’m not sure if there's any meat. It might be vegetarian.”

“It smells great, either way.”

Liv handed him two plates and an assortment of flatware, which Jared organized on the counter bar while she cut two large squares of lasagna with the edge of a spatula.

“Water or tea?” Jared asked, standing at the open refrigerator door.

“Water, please.”

It couldn’t escape her notice how well they worked together. There was something so natural and easy about the two of them, whether they were putting together a meal or just driving down the street. Liv knew such a comfort level didn’t come by often, and she was reluctant to gamble against it.

Her conversation with Hallie tripped across her mind as she rounded the counter and climbed atop the barstool next to Jared. Would their relationship remain so fresh and simple over the course of time, especially with a thousand or more miles between them? What was—

Jared interrupted the progress of her thoughts as he reached over and took her hand in his.

“How about a quick prayer?” he suggested.

Liv swallowed around the lump in her throat and nodded. Following Jared's lead, she bowed her head and closed her eyes.

“Thank you for this delicious meal,” he said. “And for the company you’ve allowed me to keep. Now please help us find a way to keep the momentum going.”

Liv opened her eyes and turned toward Jared. He was looking back at her, and the smile that curved upward was sweet and meaningful.

“Amen,” she added with a whisper, and then she returned the smile. Jared squeezed her hand before releasing it.

Before much of their dinner could be enjoyed, a sudden blast of wind slammed into the side of the house. The clamor of debris accompanied a strange and strident hiss that left them in darkness.

“Not again!” Liv cried.

Jared lit several candles on the counter and grinned at her from behind their flickering yellow curtain.

“Ambiance,” he declared. “Let's enjoy our dinner.”

Liv wondered if he could possibly be as collected as he appeared in the face of a natural disaster that came in the form of gale-force winds and impending doom! She watched Jared as he poked another forkful of lasagna into his mouth and followed it with several gulps of iced water.

“What?” he asked when he noticed her focus on him.

Right on cue, another burst of wind sent something crashing outside, and Liv extended her hand toward the sound, palm upward.

“That,” she replied. “You’re not worried in the least?”

“Well, of course, I am,” he told her, despite the fact that his demeanor said otherwise. Jared casually stood up and reached for her plate. “Are you finished?”

“Mmm hmm.”

He gathered their plates and walked them to the sink, then he rinsed each of them before setting them down inside the large stainless steel well. He didn’t even flinch when a bouncing
klunk-klunk-klunk
thumped overhead, across the entire length of the house. Liv, on the other hand, jumped to her feet, her heart pounding, her palms perspiring. Boofer pressed herself against Liv's leg, barking several times at the ceiling as if it had come alive.

“Too bad we didn’t make some coffee before the lights went out.”

Coffee?

“You know, Rand has a battery-operated coffee pot that he used to take on his camping trips. It's on the shelf in the garage. How about I run next door and get it?”

“No!” she exclaimed, and then she struggled to reel it back in a bit. “I don’t need coffee badly enough for you to go out in this weather.”

“How about a game of Scrabble?” he suggested, and it dawned on Liv at last that Jared was trying to manage her anxiety level by keeping her focused on anything but the raging storm outside. “I know Josie has a game in the front closet. She's wiped the floor with me a few times.”

Before Liv could answer, an explosion of shattering glass sent Boofer into a fit of barks and snarls. Jared pressed his hands against both of Liv's shoulders, guiding her toward the barstool.

“Stay here,” he said, and then he rushed down the hall toward the bedrooms.

When he didn’t return right away, she took a deep breath and then headed down the hall. Jared was standing in the guest bedroom alongside a scene that was nothing if not surreal: The limb of a tree reached into the room like a bony hand, straight
through the broken window. A torn, lacy green curtain waved from one of the branches like a strange wartime flag.

“I have to pull this out from the other side,” Jared told her. “Then I’ll go over and get something to board up this window.”

“What can I do?”

“Give me time to get to the other side, and you can push from this end. First order of business is to get this tree out of the bedroom.” He ran a hand down her arm as he passed, and she wondered whether it was static electricity or just the ever-present heat between the two of them that left her tingling beneath his touch.

The tree limb rocked inside the frame of the broken window. Finally, Jared called out to her, “Give it a shove.”

Liv leaned her weight into the intruding branches, and her hands stung from the roughness of the bark as she pushed, but the thing didn’t budge.

“I hate to ask you to come outside, but if you could pull from this end while I lift, we might have better luck,” he suggested. “It seems to be stuck on the jamb of the window.”

“On my way.”

Liv grabbed Josie's neon yellow rain slicker from the closet in the front hall and slipped into it as she ran to the side of the house. The rain pelted her as she sloshed through the mud and, when she reached Jared, he looked a bit like a watercolor portrait left outside to face the elements. Boofer barked at them from inside the house.

“It's okay, girl,” Liv promised. “Calm down. It's okay.”

Jared pushed himself into the branches and managed to get a grip on two of them.

“Pull as hard as you can, on three!” he called, but his words were nearly lost behind the din of the storm. “One … two …
three!
”

Liv yanked at the tree with all her might until she finally felt it give. Jared braced both feet against the side of the house and groaned as he lent his strength to her effort. Branches snapped, wind whistled, and time seemed to stop ticking as they yanked and pulled and tugged at the encroaching tree. At last, wood cracked, and the limb broke free. Liv flew backward and slammed to the ground, the enormous arm of the battered sumac tree on top of her.

“Liv! Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Jared's tone was frantic. No more of the calm and collected storm-dweller with whom she’d shared her dinner.

“N-no,” she managed, but it was hard to breathe with the limb pressed to her chest the way it was.

Jared wedged both hands under the branch and yanked it upward with a grunt, allowing Liv the freedom to wriggle out from underneath it. Once emancipated, she drew her knees upward and hugged them while she struggled to catch her breath.

Jared crawled toward her through the mud and plopped down beside her. “Are you hurt?”

She almost didn’t hear him. “No.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Let's get you into the house. Then I’ll go next door and get something to board up the window for the night.”

Jared got to his feet and extended his hand toward her. She took it and let him pull her up.

The wind fell silent for a moment, eerily so, and then it whipped back into action, nearly stripping the jacket right off of her. But instead of moving back toward the house, Jared turned and faced Liv, taking her face into both of his hands.

A rush of adrenaline raced through her as Jared engulfed her with those chocolate brown eyes of his. The two of them
just stood there beneath the ferocious downpour, anchored to one another, locked into one gaze.

“I love you, Liv.”

It doesn’t just happen in books. Hearts really can skip a beat!

“I love you too,” she wheezed over the commotion of the storm, but she wasn’t sure he heard her. So she repeated it, this time with a shout. “
I love you TOO!
”

Jared exploded with laughter, and then he pulled her into an embrace, rocking her back and forth in his arms.

“Don’t go, Liv,” he said into her ear. “Don’t go back to Ohio tomorrow.”

She pulled back, but only far enough to look into his eyes.

“At least stay for Rand's wedding. We’ll figure something out from there.”

“Oh, Jared. I—”

“Shhh.” He placed a finger over her lips, and she kissed it. “Just say you’ll stay, just one more day.”

Liv felt as if she had no control over her reply. Her job at Providence Hospital, her retirement fund, the too-big house on the hill beside Hallie's, even the pelting rain that drenched her to the core now—it all slipped away, mere dust, blown away by the raging winds around them. In that one piercing and wonderful moment, nothing mattered aside from those three exquisite words they had just exchanged.

Like the heroine in her favorite classic novel, Olivia Wallace was going to think about the consequences on another day. On this day, as she stood at the jawline of the worst storm she’d ever encountered, Liv forgot everything else and slipped her arms around Jared's neck, leaning into the warm and tender kiss he offered.

“What's that I hear?”

“What do you mean? I don’t hear anything.”

“That's what I mean!”

The silence was deafening to Prudence. She wasn’t used to such quiet. It made her tail twitch.

I
t was with great reluctance that Liv opened her eyes, first one and then the other. Her neck was sore, and she stretched it. Her pillow had been rolled into an awkward blob beneath her head. Boofer's face was buried in Liv's armpit, and the dog whimpered when she shifted.

“C’mon, Boof,” she groaned, and she gave the dog a gentle nudge with her elbow. “Gimme a break here, huh?”

Boofer rolled away, and then released a soft, somewhat freakish squeal as she stretched and yawned.