At that moment Lexi came in looking weary, but her eyes lit up at the sight of her husband. With a little assistance from his uncle, Patrick stood on Kane’s knees and squealed as he held his hands up to her, laughing hysterically when she nuzzled his neck. “Mmmm,” she said, shooting an accusing glance at Kane, “somebody smells like chocolate.”
Ian shot Kane an “I told you so” look, before rising to take his wife in his arms. “Hey, if I smell like chocolate, will you nuzzle me like that, too?”
“Without question. A little whipped cream wouldn’t hurt, either,” she teased. Ian groaned audibly.
Lexi laughed. “Hey, did Aidan’s sister make it in?” Ian asked.
“Rebecca? No,” she said, shaking her head and frowning. “And Aidan was an absolute bear today. The local airport closed due to the weather conditions. Last he heard she made it as far as Philly but was having trouble making arrangements from there. He’s been trying to get hold of her all day, but no luck. She has an aversion to cell phones, apparently. It’s driving Aidan nuts.”
“They’re closing all the roads south of here; the river’s a mess.”
“I know,” Lexi said, biting her lip. “They’ve already started setting up a shelter for people in the flood zones. Aidan’s got the Goddess staff packing up food and water and taking it down there.”
Ian nodded. “Mick’s on his way down there now. Dad’s going to watch the Pub while we go down to help. Maggie called, said she’d like you to come by with Patrick and help her with the kids at her place. I’ve got a bag already packed.”
“You are the best husband ever,” Lexi said lovingly, giving him another kiss. “Give me a sec to change and I’ll be good to go.”
Ian watched her walk into the bedroom, his eyes hot, hungry and filled with worship. Kane felt a rare pang of envy.
“Go ahead,” Kane said, lifting Patrick in the air till he giggled. “You’ve got ten minutes.”
With a grin that could have lit half the state, Ian wasted no time following his wife into the bedroom.
––––––––
“Need an extra hand?” Kane asked a short while later as they grabbed the bags with a change of clothes and Patrick’s favorite must-haves.
Ian hesitated. Kane knew he was carefully considering his answer. It didn’t take a mind reader to know that Ian didn’t want to come right out and tell him he wasn’t up to it. Partly because he feared Kane would kick his ass to prove otherwise, and partly because he understood how difficult it was for Kane to watch and not do.
“Yeah,” Ian said finally. Wisely. “I have a feeling we’re going to need all the help we can get before the night is over.”
*
Rebecca Harrison blew a strand of hair out of her face as she strove for patience. After spending more than ten years in third world countries, she found it unbelievable that there was no way to travel the three and a half hours northwest from Philadelphia to get to Pine Ridge.
Yeah, there was a storm. So what? She’d already been through earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and fires of Biblical proportions and volcanic eruptions. And somehow people always found a way to do what needed to be done in those regions, despite the fact that they didn’t have cars or planes or trains or busses. Most of the time they didn’t even have shoes.
Frustrated with the run-around she was getting from AmTrak and Septa, she finally settled on thumbing it. From the airport, she walked to the nearest on ramp of I-95 and waited. Many people laid on their horns or shouted rude comments as they crawled past her in the heavy traffic. She ignored them.
Finally a kindly trucker took pity on her. While most would have said what she did was stupid and reckless, she disagreed. She’d always had a sixth sense about people. She could tell the good ones from the bad as easily as she could tell you what color hair they had; it’s one of the things that kept her alive all these years. If she’d sensed even the slightest bit of malice from the trucker, she would have passed. But she didn’t.
He was an older man, mid-sixties maybe, with a kind face and a well-trimmed beard. Small rings of white mixed with gray peaked out from beneath the Peterbuilt cap he wore, and the lines on his face gave her the distinct impression that he smiled much and laughed often.