“We will,” she said.

During the football game halftime, Julie, Lyla, and Janie went to the kitchen to grab drink refills. The sound of the television got louder. Quickly returning to the family room with her eyes glued to the large screen, Julie heard a forecast that would forever change her life and the lives of those around her.

Tropical Storm Leo is gaining strength in the Atlantic as we speak. We are expecting it to morph into a hurricane by Tuesday possibly hitting landfall as early as Wednesday night. Get ready, people. This is going to be a big one.

Many things happened in the seconds during and after the meteorologist spoke, yet for Julie, the world slowed to an impossible pace. Frame by frame, she watched as devastation hit, and the actual storm was still more than twenty-four hours away.

***

THEIR CAR WAS quiet on the way home from dinner. Danny white-knuckled the steering wheel, and Julie replayed what had happened in slow motion. Ashley had left the house almost immediately following the forecast, Ryan on her heels. The rest of the group tidied up what was left from dessert and left Max and Janie’s house, barely a word spoken between them.

“Leo! Of all the fucking names in the world, the one hurricane to hit Charistown in decades had to be Leo? What are the goddamn chances?”

Just hearing the name hiss from Danny’s mouth was like a physical blow to Julie’s gut.

Leo had been Ashley’s brother and Ryan’s best friend. He died in a horrific car wreck during a hurricane when she was a senior in high school. His death brought about the end of Ryan and Ashley’s relationship.

“How much more can she take, Danny? How much more should she have to?”

The muscles in her husband’s jaw bunched. “She’s a strong ass woman. She’ll take what she’s given and not just survive but thrive. Reminds me of you, Julie. She always has.”

His silken words touched her in a way she couldn’t express. It wasn’t sexy or slick but loving and truthful, words she felt straight down to the marrow of her bones.

“You told her tonight before she left that she wasn’t alone,” Danny reminded. “And she’s not. She has a family now, and this time, she has Ryan. Promise you, babe, he won’t let her down, not ever again. Of that, I’m fucking certain.”

“I believe that too.” And she did.

As soon as their car pulled into the garage, the couple started preparing the list of things they needed to purchase from the hardware store to safeguard the bar against hurricane damage and the super market in case they were without power for a day or two. The next couple of days were sure to be long, exhausting, and hopefully full of unnecessary concern.

***

THE LATEST FORECAST said the hurricane would hit Charistown in less than twelve hours. While under normal circumstances, Danny wouldn’t put much faith in the weather predictions, the sky had already begun to darken and the winds to whip. He watched out the window as his store-owning neighbors and Charistown residents scurried around, preparing for the rare storm. Danny pulled his cell phone from his pocket, dialed the number, and lifted it to his ear.

“Fuck,” he mumbled when Kyle’s voice mail picked up once again.

Even with the chaos of the past two days, Danny had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get in touch with his boy. He and Julie had stopped by Kyle’s apartment, only to be met with an unanswered door. He had even called the police station to make certain Kyle hadn’t been arrested while Julie contacted the hospital. All searches came up empty. With the storm coming, they needed to batten down the hatches before they could continue their search for Kyle.

Ryan, Max, and Max’s best friend since childhood, Sebastian Gage, all came to Danny’s on Main to assist with the storm preparation. The windows got taped, awnings stowed, booths covered in plastic, tables and chairs hugged tightly together in the center of the bar. Danny had had emergency generators installed several years prior, after they lost electricity for twenty-four hours due to an electrical storm. The food in the freezers would be fine if the power went out this time around.

“Go home, boys. Thanks for helping me handle stuff around here.” Danny looked at the men he respected, cared about, and loved. He felt a great sense of accomplishment in having found so many good men to call friends—family. As the group filed out, Danny called, “Ryan, you don’t want her to be alone too long in this weather.”

No other words were said because none were needed. Ryan nodded and left the bar with Max. Danny called Kyle again before removing the cash from the register and waiting for Julie to arrive so they could sort through their office before going home. No reason to be open in a ghost town.

###

“WOMAN, HOW MANY candles did you buy?” He couldn’t hide the humor in his voice even if he’d tried. The woman must have pulled forty jarred candles out of the shopping bags he’d helped her unload from the car.

“Dan, you’re lucky I could even find these.” She held up the white wax-filled jar. “The whole town has been emptied of batteries, but I got my hands on an eight-pack. Even that was tough. I thought some woman was going to throw a punch in order to take it from me.” She shook her head in the way she did when people’s actions confounded her. “Anyway, being the wife of a former firefighter, I knew better than to buy candle sticks—last thing I want to do is burn our house down if the power goes out—so I bought these candle jars instead. Figured if it came down to it, we could light them and place them away from the curtains and furniture. At least we’ll have some light.”

The way his wife’s mind worked forever amazed him. Some people multitasked; Julie multithought.

“I love you, honey,” he said, setting the jar on the table.

He cupped her head in his hands and crushed their mouths together. Her taste on his tongue as he slid it against hers, deepening the kiss, made him need more and want it all. His free hand moved to her breast, kneading it through the thermal shirt, finding her pebbled nipple and plucking it. He swallowed her moan while slowly grinding his hips against her. He loved the way her body melded into his, the ultimate trust she’d given him since the day they started their love affair.

“I want you now.” His command was uncompromising yet gentle. Heat roared through his body as every primal nerve awakened to play. Walking her backward from the dining room to the couch, he saw hunger enflame her sparkling gray eyes. “That bottom lip, baby, mmm, I need that fucking lip.” He took it, sucked it into his mouth, savored its smoothness, and pictured it around his throbbing cock.

“Danny, oh, touch me.”

Her throaty request had him stripping off her clothes before another word was spoken. His dick pulsed in his unbuttoned jeans.“Ahh, no panties. You were planning to get fucked by me, weren’t you?” His fingers brushed her naked sex, already glistening with arousal and waiting for his touch.

“A girl can hope, can’t she?” Julie panted, her eyes closing when Danny pressed his fingers into her wet channel. “Ohhh, yesss.”

The no-underwear rule had stayed in effect even when they’d lost the opportunity for adoption. If they were home, Julie was to be pantyless. At the bar, if she chose to wear undergarments, Danny had the right to tear them off. Either way, easy access was the name of the game. She tended to wear panties at work—felt cleaner that way, she claimed. So she kept spare pairs in her locked drawer in case they fooled around, which wasn’t all the time.

“I need your skin, baby.” Her eyes narrowed, her voice a husky murmur as she slid Danny’s shirt up his torso and over his head.