“Will we be okay here on our own with everything around us in shambles?” Having never been through a storm of that magnitude, Emily wasn’t sure what to do next.
Patrick pulled out his cell phone. “Emily, what’s your number?”
She rattled it off, and he typed it in. Her phone pinged in her pocket.
“Text me if you need anything.” He fell silent for a moment with thoughts he didn’t divulge. “If I don’t hear from you, I’ll be back later with lunch and groceries.”
Though he said the words, it didn’t look as if he wanted to say them. He was wrestling with something.
Emily fluttered her hands in the air. “Oh, you don’t have to.”
“What will you eat if I don’t?” he asked.
“We can figure it out. There are leftovers, right?”
“Probably not enough for as long as you need. Nothing will be open for a while,” he countered.
“Then how will you get us food?” she asked.
“This isn’t my first rodeo. I’m prepared.AndI’m a chef, remember? I’ve got an entire freezer full of food in my garage.”
“I’m sure you’ve got a lot of things to do. You should really help your family.” The last thing she wanted to be was a burden.
“I can make something quick,” he said. “I’ll be cooking for Julia and Winston anyway. And I have tons of supplies at home. I can bring you basic necessities.”
“Okay,” she relented. “Thank you.”
“I’ll be back around noon.” He slipped his phone into his back pocket. “I’ll let myself out.”
After he left, Blair returned to her suitcase by the elevator. “I’m going up to unpack. Again.” She flashed a small smile at Emily.
“Sounds good.”
Emily flopped onto the sofa and exhaled, the last twenty-four hours a blur. She rubbed her aching temples and leaned back against the cushion. Just then, her phone pinged. She fished it out of her pocket and opened the screen. Her stomach dropped.
Another text from Will to call him.
He had no empathy whatsoever. Everything was about him. How had she not seen this before? She clicked off her phone and closed her eyes.
“Since it was bolted down, the main furniture managed to make it through the storm,” Sienna said as she came inside. She plopped down on the sofa next to Emily. “The grounds crew has extra cushions in storage. They also have dry tables and loungers. They’ll be out in the next day or so. And the cleaning crew was scheduled to come at the end of the week, but with the storm, they didn’t, so I told the owner to maybe just wait until we leave.”
“Must be nice to have so much money you can stockpile deck furniture,” Emily said.
“I know, right?”
“I’m not sure what furnitureI’llcome home to in Nashville, but that’s due to a different storm.” Emily blew a loud breath through her lips. “Will texted again.”
Sienna offered a soft laugh with no warmth at all. “Donottext him back.”
“Part of me wants to just get it over with, but the other part of me wants to make him wait because that’s all I have to hold over him for what he’s done.”
“I say that you’re in the right to do whatever you feel like doing, and he has to deal with it.” She stood up and reached forEmily’s hands. “Let’s get our stuff back to our rooms and resume our vacation as best we can.”
“That sounds like the perfect plan.”
Later that afternoon,while the grounds crew hauled debris off the beach, the three women huddled together on the sofa, watching the aftermath of the storm on TV.
“Luckily people can still get in and out of town for the most part,” Sienna said. “But I’m not sure Tyson and Rocko will want to come now.”
