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Chapter 12
Nate couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t because of the wind raging outside the window or the rain thundering against the roof and the windows as it sometimes came in slantwise. The hurricane didn’t bother him, even though it should have. He’d been through worse before. The outer bands had reached them around midnight and it was now around two in the morning. The worst of it was still to come, but looking out the window, it was starting to get bad.
The curbs had been swallowed up by rising water an hour ago and it was still rising. His car was up in the driveway and would probably be okay. If it was flooding his car, it would be flooding the house, and he would be more concerned about that. These worries, though, like the storm itself, weren’t keeping him up.
He couldn’t sleep because every time he closed his eyes, he saw Colby. Laughing and smiling, her happy eyes turned toward him. Or like she had looked earlier in the kitchen when he felt sure that she wanted him to kiss her.
She was just two doors down the hall. In the cute pajamas she’d worn while they hung out that night. After about an hour working on her website, she had disappeared into her bedroom and returned wearing pink pajama pants with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on them. The top was gray with a pizza on the front. Nerdy. Cute. Probably purchased in the kids’ section of Target. Totally Colby.
Somehow incredibly attractive.
Then again, she could have been dressed in bulky ski parka or a shapeless muumuu like his Nana used to wear and he would still have found himself drawn toward her, heart racing.
Was she lying in bed right now thinking about him too?
It was torture being so aware of her presence so close.
Not that he was the kind of guy to sneak into a woman’s bed. But just imagining her there…
He groaned and put the pillow over his face. Sleeping was a problem. But so was the fact that he still hadn’t told her about his anxiety.
They spent the evening at the kitchen counter, working on her website. She looked exhausted after two hours, but Nate felt energized by it. Her ideas were amazing and he could see Quork really taking off. There was a growing segment of buyers interested in what she called nerdy pop culture chic. Gamers, fantasy and sci-fi aficionados, cool nerds. They had money and they were passionate about their hobbies, movies, and games. Shows like Stranger Things had helped bring games like Dungeons and Dragons back to the forefront.
A lot of buyers were also older, which meant more money. They were nostalgic about things like Star Trek, Nintendo, and Battlestar Galactica. Colby had a sharp wit and clever products. But her web designer was totally pulling one over on her. Within half an hour, he had convinced her to fire him over email. Before he went to bed, he had completely overhauled the structure of the Wordpress site and kicked off the other guy as admin, just in case he got mad that his cash cow was gone.
When Colby couldn’t stop yawning around midnight, Nate closed up his laptop, but promised that he would have her site up and running by the end of the week. She had given him a huge hug, almost knocking him over. Less from force and more from being dead weight. He almost offered to carry her to her room since she was barely standing, but that thought got his heart moving so fast that he knew it was a bad idea.
A sudden boom shook the house. Nate knew the power went out because it was suddenly even darker, with an eerie silence inside. No fans, no AC kicking on. Just the sound of the storm raging outside.
Footsteps ran down the hall. Colby stood like a shadow, hesitating in his doorway.
“Nate?” Her voice trembled. He could see her hand in the dark, clutching at the door frame.
He jumped out of bed and wrapped her up in his arms. “I think a transformer blew,” he said. “It’s okay.”
“I feel like such a baby,” she said. Her body shook in his arms and he squeezed tighter, wanting her to feel secure.
“You’re not a baby. This is a big storm. Look, maybe we should sleep in the hallway. No windows. It’s interior. We can bring out blankets and pillows and be a little more protected. Just in case. How’s that sound?”
She nodded against his chest. “I could sleep better, I think. I mean, I don’t know that I’ll sleep at all, but I’d feel better being in the middle of the house. And…not alone.”
“Go grab some pillows and a blanket,” Nate said. “I’ll meet you in the middle.”
“There might be an air mattress somewhere,” she said.
“Don’t worry about that now. Want me to drag in the couch cushions for you? I’m cool on the floor.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. He watched her walk back to the bedroom, one hand on the wall to steady herself. His heart was flying, but not from fear.
Nate dumped his pillows and the blanket from the bed where he was sleeping in the hallway, then went to look out the one window that he hadn’t boarded up out front, a small, high bathroom window. The water was halfway up the sidewalk, still rising. It touched the back tires of his car. Not good. There were hours more rain to come. Would it get into the house?
“Nate?” Her voice echoed.
“I’m here.” He walked back to the hallway, which was much more shadowy than the rest of the house. She must have shut all the doors. Smart, in case windows blew out.
“How is it out there?” she asked.
“Not great. The street’s totally flooded and it’s moving up the driveway. I don’t see any trees down yet. Want to go look?”
