“If you’ll excuse us, Mrs. Boswell, we were just hurrying home.” He tipped his hat, then turned abruptly, with Tori pressed against his side
.
They walked the rest of the way in silence. Jesse kept glancing in Tori’s direction.
Damn that old fool!
He released her to open the door, his heart heavy with the sadness enveloping her. She walked stiffly to the bedroom, her back ramrod straight.
Jesse leaned his forearm against the window frame and stared out at the darkness. Lights flickered in a few houses and the businesses were all dark. Sort of like his life with Tori. Lightness in some areas, deep darkness in others.
After a few minutes, he joined her in the bedroom. She lay on the bed, turned away from him. The first time she’d done that since they began using protection. His insides shifted. She appeared to be a small bundle of misery huddled in the middle of the bed.
Swiftly he removed his clothes and blew out the lamp on the dresser. He rubbed his temples with his thumb and index finger, and crossed the room. The bed dipped as he climbed in, scooting next to her.
“Don’t pay attention to that woman.” He rubbed Tori’s back. “It’s none of her business.”
No words, just a slight shaking of her shoulders. He wrapped his arm around her middle, pulled her against him, her heart thumping against his wrist. Soon she relaxed in his arms and drifted off to sleep. He closed his eyes and remembered the long dark months of her depression. They’d come so far since then.
Every day, every smile, every heated glance, made him love her more. To lose her again would tear him apart. So many times he started to tell her how he felt, but that last bit of trust she didn’t have, that together their love could conquer anything they needed to face, stopped him. She didn’t love him enough to take a chance. So he kept silent.
Dark clouds with flashes of lightning heralded the start of a typical Oklahoma spring storm. Tori closed the window over the kitchen sink to keep the rain from blowing in. Unsettled weather always frightened her. Aunt Martha told her the thunder and lightning was God’s way of punishing her for nasty thoughts. By the time she grew old enough to know it to be a lie, the fear had become ingrained.
She ticked off the whereabouts of her family. Michael worked his part time job at the newspaper, Rachel helped at The Café, Hunter did his homework next door, and Ellie had begged to go to her best friend’s house.
Jesse. The only one not accounted for. She checked her watch. He left over an hour ago, said he had a couple of appointments, and he’d be home by six. Her stomach clenched. Two more hours to fill.
A meatloaf for their supper would take some time, and keep her mind off the noise from the thunder and bright flashes. She got busy in the kitchen, singing a tune she’d heard played on the piano in the hotel lobby.
The wind blew stronger, bending bushes and trees, and blowing papers, leaves, and debris along the street. With the meatloaf in the oven and the table set, Tori took refuge on the sofa, her chin propped on her fist as she watched through the front window for her husband’s return. She flinched every time lightning struck. An uneasy feeling settled over her, one she couldn’t shake.
Jesse opened the heavy door of the bank. Paul Sommers, the bank’s owner, had sent all the way to Italy for the specially made door. A dark oak, with carvings of what most townspeople thought were disgraceful images of naked men and women. Jesse always laughed when he opened the door because the people of Guthrie didn’t recognize Italian art. He didn’t know who Sommers tried to impress, but it sure lacked an appreciative audience here.
Jenny McCall came out as Jesse entered. She wore the distracted air of most young mothers, dragging a whining small child with her, a drooling baby attached to her hip. He tipped his hat to the young woman, and spotted Paul across the room. A few minutes before closing time, the teller on duty still counted money.
Paul greeted Jesse, held out his hand and they shook. As soon as the bank closed, they would head to Paul’s back office to go over Jesse’s thriving accounts.
“Wind’s kicking up out there.” Jesse shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over a chair.
Paul locked the front door after biding his employee good night. “I think we’re in for a pretty big storm, if you ask me.”
The banker poured them both a drink and, after gesturing to each other with their glasses, they sat in the comfortable leather chairs in Paul’s office. The expensive brandy he always kept on hand went down smoothly.
“Your investments look good,” Paul said, glancing at the papers spread out in front of him. “In fact, better than good. The last railroad investment we made has almost doubled your balance. I suspect you’ll be a wealthy man before long.”
Rosie’s inheritance had started Jesse’s portfolio. He made deposits on a regular basis from his thriving law practice, and enjoyed being financially secure. Providing well for the family he still hoped to have one day was his top priority.
The wind outside had stopped, replaced by an eerie silence. They continued to flip through pages of numbers, sipping their drinks, until Jesse glanced up. “What’s that? Sounds like a train coming through here.”
“Damned if I know.” Paul cast a glance around. “The train station’s too far north.”
Jesse straightened in his seat. “Hey!” He rose and walked to the window. “The sky is green.”
Hail thundered down on the roof of the bank, ice chunks as large as pebbles striking the ground, bouncing up. With a flash, Jesse turned to Paul and shouted, “We need to get to the basement.”
Paul’s answer, had there been one, was lost in the sound of cracking and splintering. Jesse turned as a part of the wall alongside Paul flew apart, a board with a nail attached hitting the banker in the face. He went down with a thud, banging his head on the marble top of the heavy desk.
Jesse threw his arms over his face and backed away from the window as it shattered, spewing small pieces of glass over him. Wind whipped through the building, slamming books, papers, and debris into his body. He backed away, then tripped over Paul as another wall crashed down. Stunned, he shook his head and tried to get up as the desk flew into the air, knocking him sideways. He rolled over and covered his head as the rest of the building fell in. His last thought of Tori was snatched away when everything went black.