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She’s always beautiful, but in nothing but my button-down shirt with the top few buttons loose and a pair of giant fluffy socks, she’s reached a level of sexiness, I’m not sure I’m prepared to handle. At least not until I’ve run down to the hotel shop for more condoms.
Fate stepped in to hand me a long, uninterrupted afternoon with this incredible woman, and I mean to make the most of it.
“Yes, I think that’s fine,” Nora says, rolling her eyes my way as she turns to pace the other direction. “The Sweetwaters can’t leave their compound because Harmony Creek Road is already under water. And we know they’re telling the truth because Matty called Starling. She confirmed that they evacuated all the animals from the Furry Friends shelter this morning because they have to cross Harmony Creek Road to get in and out of there, too. She said the waters were rising so fast, they didn’t know how many days they’d be left without access to the facility and didn’t want the animals to be left without someone to care for them. So, no one is going to be coming after Melissa or anyone else tonight and besides, Rex already apologized for that and swore it happened before he and Matty made a date to talk things through.”
Aaron’s voice gets louder on the other end of the line, loud enough for me to hear, “…and I don’t like this,” without having to strain.
Nora winces and pulls the phone away from her ear before adding, “I know you don’t like it. I don’t love it, either. But isn’t this much better than when you thought Matty was a hooligan?”
“Criminal, not hooligan,” Aaron booms, making Nora wince again.
“Okay, fine,” she says. “I hear your concerns. Boy, do I hear them. I also appreciate them, and I don’t intend to take any unnecessary chances. But I’m committed to helping Matty save this mission before it’s too late, and no amount of yelling from you is going to change that.”
Aaron mumbles something I can’t make out, but that causes Nora’s expression to soften. “I know you’re just worried. I worry about you, too. All the time. But we’re both adults now with good heads on our shoulders. We can handle problems on our own sometimes. Not like when we were kids, and the only safety was in numbers.” She hums sympathetically. “I know you mean well. You always do.” She cuts a look my way, her lips twitching. “Yes, I’m sure she’ll realize that, too. She won’t hate you forever. Probably just for a year or two and you’re almost always on the road, so it should be easy to avoid further injury. Just…stay out of her face. And the squirrel’s face.”
I frown and she holds up a finger, indicating she’ll tell me more in a second.
Aaron mutters for several moments while Nora fights to keep from laughing.
She nods, taking a deep breath. “Yes, I know exactly how stressful an unwanted rodent interaction can be. I was humped by a squirrel, too, remember?” Her eyes widen. “Dude, what if it was thesamesquirrel? The park where I was humped isn’t that far from Melissa’s house. It could be the same horny squirrel! Who just happens to be inexorably drawn to people with Boudreaux blood flowing through their veins. Do you think our family might have mated with squirrels at some point way back in the family line? Arewepart squirrel? Is that why I’m afraid of dogs and cats and all larger animals, because my squirrel instincts are warning me that I’m a prey animal and need to be on guard against potential predators?”
Her brother starts yelling again, but I can’t hear a word he’s saying. Nora’s laughing too hard. And so am I.
Damn, she makes me laugh.
Finally, she shouts, “Oh my God, of course, I’m kidding, you weirdo. Go start a pot roast for Gram for dinner tonight. The meat in the fridge needs to be used before it goes bad.” She sighs and rolls her eyes again. “Of course, you can do it. Just follow the recipe. Cooking isn’t that hard, I promise. You do way more complicated things. You skate and fight people with sticks at the same time. I’ll call you when I have news. Until then, sit tight and don’t stress. Matty has sworn to defend me with his life, and I can tell he means it.”
“I do,” I call out, earning a stricken look from Nora that I don’t understand until Aaron starts talking a mile a minute.
“Well, now you’ve done it,” Nora whispers with a shake of her head. “Here,” she adds, holding out the phone. “Now he’s insisting on ‘talking’ to you, AKA threatening you within an inch of your life.”
“It’s okay, I can handle it,” I say, smiling as I take her cell and bring it my ear. “Hi, Aaron.”
“Hey,” he growls. “You’d better do more than watch out for her, Matty. You’d better throw yourself in front of a bullet for her.”
“I will,” I promise. “But I seriously doubt it will come to that. I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure Nora is safe. And thanks for taking care of Mel last night. I appreciate it.”
“Is that what she said?” he asks, a strange note I can’t quite read creeping into his tone. “That I took care of her?”
“Um, no, I actually haven’t spoken to her yet,” I say, glancing back at the television. “I’m starting to wonder if the cell tower near her place is down. She’s not far from Harmony Creek and I know the road there is already washed out.”
Aaron curses softly. “I knew I should have made her come with me to Gram’s this morning. But she was determined to kick me out and go it alone.”
I frown. “You stayed at her place last night?”
“I did,” he says, a little defensively. “If your friends came after her again, I didn’t want her to be alone. Even if she was determined to take on the entire world like some kind of one-woman army with nothing in her house but a weird, handheld blender for protection.”
“She’s stubborn,” I say, still frowning. “But she was fine when you left, right? No one came sniffing around last night and she was feeling okay about things this morning?”
“She was feeling great,” he mutters. “She seemed to really enjoy seeing me get sexually assaulted by that squirrel on the way to my rental truck.” He breaks off with a considering sound. “The truck is pretty high off the ground. If she needs someone to come get her before she’s trapped, I can go. I don’t mind.”
“Thanks,” I say, my every instinct insisting there’s a lot more to this than Aaron is letting on.
But I also don’t know Aaron well. Thankfully, however, I have eerie twin-mind-reading-powers with my sister. Even over the phone.
All I have to do is get her on the line, and I’ll have answers to all my burning questions about what went down with her and Nora’s brother last night.
“I’ll let her know you offered if I talk to her,” I continue. “But I’m guessing she’ll want to stay put. Her house is above any flood danger, she has two freezers’ full of food, and I installed a generator for her last winter so she and Chase wouldn’t get in trouble if the power went out. She should be fine. And Nora will fine, too. I promise.”
