The McClane Apocalypse: Book Two (43 page)

“Yeah, he came for us. I was so scared he wouldn’t, but he did. Cory said he would,” Em says shyly.

“He loves you guys a lot, Em. You’re the only thing he talks about, both of you,” Hannah informs her.

“I love him, too. I don’t ever want him to leave us,” she confides.

Hannah finds Em’s hand again which rests in her lap, fiddling with her other. She holds the young girl’s hand in her own and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

“He’ll never leave you, honey. He loves you guys so much,” Hannah reassures her.

“I just worry that he’ll get married someday and leave or want his own kids,” Em says worriedly.

“Em, I’m not going anywhere,” Kelly says from the doorway, startling them both.

Hannah hadn’t heard anyone come down the hall because she was so engaged in conversation with Em. This is not normally a problem for her. Apparently she’d been more engrossed with talking to Em than she’d thought.

“Come here, Em,” Kelly orders quietly.

His voice is so deep and brusque that people just have a tendency to listen to him. Hannah certainly does and follows Em to the doorway. When she gets there, she reaches out for Kelly who takes her hand and goes down on one knee in front of his small sister. He raises Hannah’s hand with his own and places both of them on Em’s slim shoulder.

“Now you listen to me. I am never, ever gonna leave you. No matter what, you’ll always be with me. I’m never going anywhere without you and Cory. If we stay here, then we do it together. If we end up leaving someday, then we go together. No matter what, we’re stickin’ together, kid. Do you understand me?” Hannah feels tears threaten to pool over at Kelly’s heartwarming speech. “You’re a part of me, Em. Nothing and no one is ever going to come between me and you and Cory. You got me?”

“Yes. I’m sorry,” Em apologizes, thinking she’s angered Kelly.

“You don’t have to be sorry, honey. I just want you to understand,” he explains and then yanks Em to him in a fierce embrace, never letting go of Hannah’s hand.

This time Hannah does lose a few tears as they drizzle hopelessly down her cheeks before she whisks them away.

“I miss Mom and Dad so much,” Em says on a sob and cries in earnest, her tiny heart shattering.

“I know, honey. I do, too,” Kelly answers with more than a little emotion behind his baritone voice and holds her for a long while until she’s all cried out.

Hannah leaves them momentarily to retrieve a handkerchief from the top drawer of her bureau and hands it to Kelly.

Em pulls away first, “I love you, Kelly.”

“I love you too, kid,” he returns, reminding Hannah of why she has come to care so deeply for him. He finally releases Hannah’s hand. “Come on I’ll put you to bed.”

And even though Em isn’t a toddler anymore and she’s not a girl of Ari’s age, either, Kelly picks her up and carries her from the room.

Hannah is left to the privacy of her own bedroom, and she takes a minute to use the bathroom facilities, mostly to wash the smell of the day’s canning from her hands and blot her face with a cool washcloth. When she re-emerges, she knows instantly that she’s not alone. He’s come back and he’s in her room, but she’s not exactly sure where.

“Kelly?”

“I’m over here,” he says from the same bench on which she’d just been sitting while braiding the two girls’ hair into neat, tight plaits.

Hannah crosses the room to him, but not before she touches the button on her bedside clock which announces the time of 9:23 p.m. in a digitally recorded robot-like voice. She decides to sit across from him on the edge of her bed.

“I just wanted to say thank-you. I overheard some of your conversation with Em. I wasn’t meaning to eavesdrop, but I just came looking for her so that I could get her to bed,” Kelly explains.

“It’s ok. I know you wouldn’t. I like helping with her. I’m happy to do it. You don’t have to feel like you were eavesdropping. I don’t have any secrets from you anyways,” Hannah informs him honestly. For some reason this makes him huff a breath through his nose, which she takes to mean that he doesn’t believe her.

“Sometimes I think you hold all the secrets of the universe, Hannah McClane,” he says calmly, and now it’s Hannah’s turn to laugh. If she knew all the secrets in the world, she’d know why he constantly pushes her away.

“I don’t know about that!” she exclaims.

“I do,” he repeats and this time almost sounds angry which is typically, confusingly Kelly. “But I heard some of the things you were talking to her about. I’m glad that you’re here for her. She needs it. She needs you... and the other women on this farm. She’s going to be going through a lot in the next few years if we’re still here, and she’s going to need to have women to talk about... women’s issues with,” he tells her as Hannah’s heart sinks.

“What do you mean if you’re still here? Are you going somewhere?” Hannah asks and is frightened to hear his answer, especially after overhearing him making plans with Cory to live at the condo community.

“You just never know what could happen. Maybe the world will fix itself by some small miracle, and we’ll be able to move on from here and have... a normal life,” he says calmly. How the heck can he say something like this and with such sincerity?

“I like my life here. And so do your brother and sister. They don’t want to leave the farm.
You’re
the only one on the farm who keeps wanting to leave it!” she says, her voice rising unladylike.

“That’s not... look, I just wanted to thank you for talking with Em. I didn’t come back here to fight,” he says with irritation in his voice. If anyone should be irritated, it should be her.

“Fine, your welcome!” she says and clenches her jaw. Kelly’s to his feet in a heartbeat, and Hannah follows suit, completely unafraid of him.

“Sometimes you can really...,” he growls and doesn’t finish.

“Yeah? Well, sometimes you can really argh me, too!” She tries her hardest to imitate his silly growl. Ok, so it wasn’t the most mature response, but it had been all she was capable of. He chuckles at her and pauses for a long time.

“That wasn’t very intimidating, Hannah. Sorry. You just sound like a mad mouse,” he says with a laugh. She half frowns, half grins at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lose my temper.”

“How sorry?” she taunts. She doesn’t want to tell him that she’s been living with Reagan for the last six months who lost her temper on an hourly basis and his losing and her losing were two completely different notions.

He doesn’t respond, leaving Hannah to believe that she’s stumped him. She can physically feel him stepping closer, right before he picks up her braid. He does this a lot when they are alone, and her reaction to it is always the same; a sharp intake of breath.

“Very?” he asks with a smile in his tone.

“Hm, not good enough,” she teases and pretends to pout at him while crossing her arms over her chest.

“This sorry?” he asks and places a kiss on her forehead.

“Nope, not good enough,” she whispers. He kisses her left cheek, his lips lingering a tad long. He still holds her braid.

“Not... um, no,” she croaks. Kelly tilts her head back with one finger under her jaw and kisses her full on the mouth just briefly.

“Sorry enough now?” he asks hoarsely, his breath mingling with hers. Hannah can’t catch hers because Kelly has stolen it along with her ability to speak apparently.

“Uh...,” is all she can manage like a moron.

“I think that was sorry enough,” he tells her and places another quick peck to her lips. “For now,” he adds in a promisingly, sexy voice.

For now, indeed, Hannah thinks as he sets her braid back against her chest.

“Good night, Hannah,” he murmurs, though she does not answer. Kelly leaves her without saying anything else, but she cannot tell him that this night is long from over because it’s her secret to keep... for now.

She rejoins Sue in the kitchen for a glass of milk, and they sit at the island for a while as the men finish up outside with their nightly routine of checking and rechecking the buildings and locking the med shed. Within a half an hour Derek, Kelly and Cory all come into the house, and Cory calls dibs on the first shower so he can begin his patrol which starts in just a few minutes. He takes it very seriously and is on time and ready every night for his duties. Cory is becoming more and more like the men around the farm every day. Derek and Kelly were discussing Cory’s ability with the weapons at the farm and were impressed by how much he already knew but were planning on getting him involved in some sort of basic rifle shooting marksmanship something or other. It was training they’d all gone through during the beginning of their Army careers, and they feel it is necessary for him to know how to take apart, fix and shoot all of the available guns on the farm.

Hannah excuses herself for the evening and takes a shower in her own bathroom because she and the grandparents share their own hot water tank and water lines in the added bedroom suites which does not alter the hot water to the other bathrooms. She dries her hair, leaving it to hang long and loose. She slides a clean nightgown over her head that comes to the tops of her knees. When she is done with her nightly routine, she sits on the edge of her bed and presses the time button again. 11:42 p.m. comes the computerized voice again. Sue will finish her feeding with Isaac in her bedroom in a few minutes, and she and Derek will retire on the second floor. Grandpa and Grams have long since fallen asleep, and the children are out like fallen timber. Cory will be the only one still up and on night watch duty, but he will be two floors above where Hannah is going.

She leaves her room, passing her grandparents’ suite and checks to make sure their door is still closed. There is no sound coming from their room. She tiptoes slowly so as not to trip over a child’s errant toy or shoe, but she knows that the kids are great for not leaving things around most times because of her. Counting off the grooves in the banister, Hannah makes her way down the long hall. Four feet, eight feet and so on until she comes to the opening to the kitchen and pantry areas. She counts until she runs out of feet to count and hash marks to feel and comes to decision time. Her destiny is awaiting her. He just doesn’t know it yet.

She pauses only a heartbeat and continues her journey until she passes the main, public bathroom space, the pantry, kitchen, and then the living room and comes to the open stairwell leading downstairs to the basement bedrooms. Carefully, so as not to tumble end over end down the basement stairs, she feels along the hand railing which is also marked until she reaches the bottom step. From there she passes the open guestrooms, John’s old room, the children’s shared room and finally comes to Kelly’s room. Hannah takes a deep breath and then another and exhales slowly right before she turns the knob.

She hears him in the bathroom that joins to the children’s room, as well, and decides to wait a moment by the doorway. Her stomach quivers nervously. She hears him come out of his bathroom after he flicks off the light.

“Hannah?” he gasps in surprise. “What are you doing in here? Has something happened?” Always so worried, always so on edge and alert and ready for a battle this poor man.

“No, not yet,” she says and turns the lock on the door behind her back with a prognostic click.

“What? Is someone hurt or something?” he asks bewilderedly.

Hannah walks slowly toward him, holding out her hand. She expects him to walk into it like he usually does, but instead he snatches her wrist.

“No,” she answers and doesn’t give him anything for which to argue. She reaches out her other hand toward him, and he snatches it, too.

“Then what the hell are you doing in here, and why did you lock the door?”

Wow, this is going to be a lot harder than she thought if he is asking her this.

“Kelly, I want to be with you,” she confesses. Might as well get it out in the open. She only has an hour and a half before it is his turn for watch. She sure doesn’t know much about sex, definitely not how long it will take, but she’d planned for an hour and a half.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Can we talk about this in the morning?” he asks impatiently and starts backing her toward the door against her will.

“Absolutely not,” she says stubbornly and yanks one hand free. Hannah reaches for him again and he dodges her hand. She can tell because he about pulls her to the ground while holding her other.

“Hannah, don’t!” he grinds out at her.

“Why not?” she asks with feigned innocence.

“Because damn it, I’m not dressed,” he admits finally. Not dressed? Interesting.

“Oh, well then good!” she says cheerily and taps at her lower lip thinking. “I had factored in time for that so now we’ll have even more time.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Time for what?”

Hannah steps much closer and presses her hand to his chest which is, indeed, bare. “Your seduction, silly.”

“Wh... what did you just say?” he stammers uncomfortably and tries to step away. Hannah just follows and slides her hand down the front of him which makes him jump back. He finally releases her hand.

“I decided that you do want me after all, and I want you, and that’s all we need to know, Kelly. We should be together. It’s as simple as that, and I’m tired of you making it more complicated than it needs to be. I’ve never felt like this about anybody before you, so stop fighting me,” she tells him authoritatively and follows as he takes two more steps back.

“Hannah, go back to your own room and stop talking nonsense,” he scolds her in his best serious, mean voice. He retreats away, moving closer to the bed. Perfect.

“You are for me, Kelly. And I don’t think you would kiss me like you do if you weren’t just the tiniest bit attracted to me,” she explains calmly and searches him out again.

“Hannah, you know I’m attracted to you. But it just won’t work,” he says. Hannah has found him again; his voice is her homing beacon of pure velvet and deep baritones. “Let me get dressed and I’ll walk you to your room.”

“No thanks,” she answers easily. “Let me get undressed because you are wasting valuable time, Kelly.”