"He'll match the van," I said, giggling. I couldn't help it. "Do you want me to break it to him when he returns?"
She shot me a relieved look. "Do you mind? You know how I hate to give him bad news. I never like seeing that disappointed look on either of your faces."
I gave her a one-armed hug. "I know. Maybe he can get one of those jeeps he was eyeing the other day."
"Maybe," she said, shaking her head. "He's going to be heartbroken though. That van was his baby."
Chapter 13
A couple hours later, Josh staggered in looking like a drowned rat. He was followed by a cranky elderly gentleman who seemed to be on some kind of rant.
"I don't see why you can't drive me to my kin's house," he complained.
"Because my men aren't running a taxi service," Mitch answered, coming out of his office. "Perhaps you should have thought about joining your family during the mandatory evacuation for low-lying areas two days ago."
"Do you know how many damn times them newscasters get their storm coverage wrong? If I jumped every time they said boo, I'd be a damn kangaroo."
"That may be, but by Thursday we knew this storm was for sure coming," Mitch said dryly. "You're going to have to hunker down here for the night with the rest of my patrol. There are cots in the back two rooms. The room with the three cots is for the ladies. The rest of us will have to sleep in shifts," he said, leaving no room for Mr. Cranky to complain, though he tried.
&nbs
p; "That must have been fun," I told Josh as we stood against the wall. "Where's Butch?"
"He's outside," Josh laughed. "Just put it this way, rescuing a feral cat out of an enclosed space would have been more fun," he said, making me giggle. "Seriously, I thought he was going to chomp down on my hand at one point. Not to mention the fact that he tried to con Butch into packing a suitcase for him."
"Oh god, I bet that went well."
"Actually, your dad showed a lot of patience until William Banks hit him with his cane. Then he all but dragged the old guy outta there. I would have cracked up even more if we didn't need to get the hell outta Dodge."
"William Banks?"
"That's another funny part. The old guy insisted we call him by his formal name."
"And now he's here. How fun," I said as Buttercup and William Banks got into an argument over the coffee she was preparing for the patrolmen.
"Never a dull moment," Josh said, laughing.
"Did you see our van, by the way? A palm tree decided to get up close and personal with it."
He winced. "No, we came in through the back. How bad?"
"Like I told Buttercup, pancake time," I said. We slid down the wall and sat on the cool tile floor. "Hmm, this is nice." We only had a few fans running throughout the building, which had left all of us feeling sticky from the humidity.
"Man, with all the bodies in here, it almost feels better outside. At least my damp clothes help a little," he said.
"Yeah, I am a little envious about that. I was tempted to step outside for a quick shower just to cool off," I said in the wistful tone I'd used earlier.
"That I can do," he said, pulling me to my feet.
"You mean it?" I asked, barely able to contain my excitement.
"Heck yeah. Mitch didn't want you to go out on any of the calls, but we can step out the back door for a minute. Just stay close to the building," he said, leading me down the hall.
We passed several patrol officers who all smiled as we headed for the door. I laughed with glee as Josh pulled me outside and we became soaked immediately, but I didn't care. I tilted up my battered face, twirling around as the rain cascaded down me, rinsing the stickiness from my skin. It felt so good to be out of the stifling building. Opening my one good eye, I saw that Josh was watching me intently.
"What?" I asked self-consciously, feeling like I should cover the half of my face that was swollen.
"You're so damn beautiful."