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“You’re not uncivilized at all. I think you’re a perfect gentleman.” After blotting one last tear with her fingers, she picked up her bowl again. “You even blushed when you got onto the topic of your underwear.”
“I didn’t blush.”
“You did.” Surprising him, she reached for his face and touched the skin of his cheek, above his beard. “Right there, you turned red.”
He couldn’t move. She was touching him. Red alert, red alert.
The miraculous moment was shattered by a terrific howl from outside the cabin, followed by a loud clattering sound. He jumped to his feet, motioning for Brenda to stay put. Wind swirled inside the cabin, sent his camping stove tumbling to the floor.
Holy shit. The wind was tearing the cabin apart.
“I think it took a piece of the roof off,” he told Brenda. “We have to get out of here. If the roof goes, anything could happen. It’s not safe anymore.”
twelve
Brenda didn’t question Galen’s assessment. In a flash, he packed up everything he’d spread around the cabin, including the nice comfy sleeping bag she’d been very much looking forward to sleeping in. They pulled on their outerwear, shouldered their packs, and forged into the ferocious wind.
The noise was insane. She hadn’t realized how much the little cabin had protected them from the sheer decibel level of the storm.
Galen pointed in the direction he wanted them to go, but he made Brenda go ahead of him. A moment later, she understood why.
With a terrible splintering sound, the wind ripped the door off its hinges. It cartwheeled across the clearing. Galen ran to Brenda and used his body to shield her from the debris flying toward them. She felt him flinch, felt the wild rush of the wind slamming everything in its path.
“Are you okay?” he yelled when the sounds had died down.
“Yes. You?” She dared a glance over her shoulder, and saw with a shock that the cabin was missing part of its metal roof too. A sheet of metal had slammed into the trunk of a swaying pine tree.
“Let’s go.” Galen nudged her forward. She noticed that he hadn’t answered her question, but she did as he directed. Lowering her head, she planted one foot in front of the other and headed for the trail that would take them back down the mountain. Every step was a challenge because the wind kept whipping tree branches against her face and pelting her with forest debris.
“Give me a break!” she yelled back at the wind, which didn’t seem to notice.
“What?” shouted Galen.
“Nothing, just shouting into the wind. I finally know what that phrase means.”
“What?”
With a smile, she dropped any attempt at conversation. Keeping her focus on her boots meeting the ground, she let her mind wander back to that moment in the cabin before the gale had hit.
His skin had felt so much softer than she’d imagined. Galen came across as such a rugged guy, someone capable of fighting off a bear with his bare hands. But when she’d touched his cheek, it was as if she’d unlocked a window into another side of him. He’d looked so surprised, arrested even, and the way their eyes had met and held…like a shaft of light connected them in that moment.
She’d almost kissed him.
Holy mackerel. She’d almost kissed him! If the storm hadn’t ripped the roof off the cabin, her next movement would have been leaning forward and touching her lips to his.
Crazy! Where had that impulse come from? She should thank the storm for interfering with such an unwise move. If she kissed Galen…well, what would be wrong with kissing Galen? If he didn’t want to kiss her, he would just draw away. He was a straightforward person, which was one thing she appreciated about him. He was perfectly capable of telling her they shouldn’t do things like kiss while they were trying to survive in the wilderness.
The wind whined in her ears like one of her fourth-graders when they needed to go potty. What do you want from me? What?
She realized that she was yelling out loud again—something she’d never do with her actual fourth graders. Yelling was something she kept in reserve for crisis moments, so that when she did yell, the kids knew it was ultra-serious.
Behind her, she heard Galen laugh.
“What?” she called over her shoulder. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re different in a storm, that’s all.”
Turning back to the path, she smiled to herself. Right now she was Storm Brenda, and no one on earth knew what Storm Brenda was like, because she’d never been in a storm like this before. In it, meaning exposed to the elements, flesh meeting wind, body claiming its ground, fighting for each step against the mighty forces of nature whirling around.
