“Well, me because he hasn’t said one word to you this entire time.”
“He’s playing poker.”
“Exactly!” Kate proclaimed. “He shouldn’t be. He’s supposed to be your date and Aiden is supposed to be playing poker, but Mr. Thoughtful didn’t enter the party tonight.” She flapped her arms like a bird and shook her head, “But that’s not what this is about. What—we need people to leave and they can’t and if they don’t—we all might be flooded in this house.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know, but Aiden’s not making sense and…I don’t know what to do and you just look like you had one of those talks, and I’m sorry. I don’t know who else to go to.”
“What about Robbie? What does he say?”
Kate stiffened indignantly, “I’m not talking to him.”
“Kate.” Dani stood up. Calm, yet wrecked inside. “You need to go and talk to your best friend because he will know better than me. I promise. Right now, not the time for emotional and personal baggage to get in the way.”
“Look who’s talking,” Kate snorted, but clamped a hand over her mouth. “I am so sorry. That was completely juvenile of me…and I’m sorry again.”
Dani sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Have you tried the police station?”
“Yeah and they’re busy evacuating people out of Mae’s Grill. Mulvay said this is our problem. Blah, blah, blah, but the gist was that Jake and I should handle this.” She looked blankly at Dani and said, “I can’t handle this.”
Dani took over and instructed, calmly, “Talk to Robbie. We need to know if this house is going to get flooded or not. If it’s not, then we’ll need candles, matches, as much preserved food as we can get, and we’ll gather lots and lots of blankets. Find anything that might heat this place up too—just in case.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to break up the game,” Dani said gravely.
“What? No. You can’t do that. People will go—that’s the only thing keeping people from realizing what’s going on outside. It’s really, really ugly outside. They’ll start thinking about leaving and then get panicked when they can’t drive through this anymore.”
“Okay.” Dani sighed. “Um…I’ll go and find Bubba. Is he making sense?”
“Yeah, but he’s trying to calm down Aiden. He sent me to you.”
“Where are they?”
“They’re upstairs. Aiden broke down about her dad a little while ago. It was very—she was smiling and then she was going off. She just flipped.”
“Well, we have to know if the floods are going to wipe us out or we have to know what to do, Kate.”
“Okay, but you’d need to ask Jonah that. He’s the one who knows water. He’s like the Water Whisperer or something.”
Any other time and Dani would’ve thought that was funny, but now—not so much.
“Okay. I’m going to go and ask Bubba and if he doesn’t know, I’m breaking up the game.”
“But—”
“No, buts. It’s the game or possibly our lives. I choose the game.”
“You don’t have to be so melodramatic.” Kate rolled her eyes and shifted to pout.
“What are you…how much have you had to drink tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
“Kate!”
“Seven beers and yes, I am fully aware of how tanked I am.”
“Okay, okay.” There was no time to dwell on that, so, “Go find Robbie. Get him to help. I’m heading to the master bedroom.”
“Okay.” And with a nod, a salute, Kate bounced from the room.
Dani exhaled and looked over her shoulders to the blanket of rain that pounded the house. She hadn’t considered it, but now she realized that Craigstown was due for a flood. They’d been in a five-year drought and Dani reflected, with sudden clarity, that the water was coming back with a bang.
She remembered the wind. It was the first thing that slammed against their building. The wind had howled maliciously and Dani remembered the forbidding knot that had started to coil inside of her stomach.
The wind barely registered her consciousness now, but it was a different time and a different place.
There was no ocean and no tsunami that would wipe them out.
There were no children who were going to die and Dani wasn’t alone this time.
This wasn’t another storm. She wouldn’t let it happen, not again.
But as she left the room, slowly, with the rain behind her, Dani still felt that same coil start to clench inside of her.
And she knew it wouldn’t go away until she saw the sun, the clear sky, and everyone was still breathing around her.
The party sounded louder against her eardrums and harsher. The people seemed drunker and the giddy laughs were surreal to Dani as she shoved through the crowd and finally stumbled to the stairs.
She heard shouting that was muffled as she drew closer.
“No, I won’t—” Aiden shouted, but stopped abruptly as Dani knocked briefly on their door.
“What?” Aiden called through, muffled.
Dani took a breath and opened the door. She walked inside, saw the warning expressions on both the husband and wife and smiled brightly, “I need to steal your husband for a moment. There is a refreshment dilemma and only Bubba—sorry—Chimp Two can fix it.”
Aiden scowled, but softened at the ridiculous name.
Bubba ran a wary hand over his jaw and asked, “Can’t this wait?”
“No. No, it can’t.”
“I got all the pop out. I don’t know where Aiden put the rest of the refreshments.” Bubba frowned.
“Well, it’s more of a flooding incident,” Dani said awkwardly.
“Oh great!” Aiden threw her hands in the air. “It’s just likely to happen. My father’s in the lap of luxury and I’m stuck with toilet flooding! This is not karma. I won’t let my dad get away with this!”
“Um…” Dani wasn’t about to correct her. “Yes, that’s why I need Bubba.”
“Fine. Go,” Aiden said sharply. “I’ll rant and rave to myself right now. It’s not like I’m going to go over there and lay into him. Tell my father how he’s missed the last twenty-seven years of my life and the first five didn’t even count. My nanny raised me. He probably forgot he even had a daughter when he met her.”
“Okay. Fine. I’m going…” Bubba glanced sharply at his wife and asked, “Do you want me to put a yoga tape in? I could do that.”
“I can do it! I wasn’t raised with a gold spoon in my hand. Just because I come from money, doesn’t mean I lived with servants!”
“Okay. I’m going.” And Bubba walked out the door.
Dani stayed behind, held suspended, and Aiden grimaced, “I’m sorry. I’m not…normally irrational, you just—it’s a big deal. My dad’s never visited—ever.”
“No. I get that,” Dani murmured.
“I’ll be better tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Dani knew she’d see her before tomorrow, but it wasn’t the time or place to start explaining those circumstances.
Dani offered, “Do the yoga. It really helps.”
“Thanks. I’ll try…can’t hurt, right?”
“No.” And Dani scurried off. Bubba was waiting in the stairway and he sighed, “I’m sorry that you heard that. Aiden’s…she represses everything that has to do with her dad and I think and it just snapped tonight. She’s really not…crazy or anything.”
“No, trust me, I get that. Very much,” Dani said dryly and led the way back through the party and to the emptied porch she’d stood with Boone not long ago.
“This isn’t about a flooded toilet, is it?” Bubba asked, gravely.
Dani shut the door and asked abruptly, “What’s the elevation for this place?”
“Huh?”
“If there were warnings of flash floods, what’s the chance of this house getting flooded?”
Bubba understo
od immediately and his face went blank. “Oh my god,” he cut out.
“Bubba—”
“I know, but we’re not on any elevated land at all. I mean, Robbie’s is probably the best place to go, but that’s a ten-minute drive and is there already flooding out there? Oh my god.”
He moved to the door and pushed it open, but he froze as water quickly rushed inside.
For a muscular bodybuilder that was man-enough to be answer to Chimp Two, he froze like anyone else would’ve.
Dani didn’t and she rushed to close the door.
“Okay.” Dani shoved him back, away from the door, and said firmly, “We’re going to need lights. Lots and lots of light. Like flashers that you might use to shine deer or portable headlights. Okay? That’s your job. You have to get those for me. Now!”
“We don’t have any,” he said faintly, his eyes still rooted to the door.
“The water isn’t high enough. Do you have any neighbors that would have some? We need to move as many people as we can, but we need to be able to see where we’re going.”
“I…”
“Neighbors. Who would have them?”
“Uh…Eddie would have some. He’s a big hunter.”
“Good. Do you have waders at all?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Put them on and go find Eddie. Get all the lights that you can carry back, okay?”
“Okay.” Bubba jerked to reality and surged past her.
Dani hauled him back and said firmly, “Come back.”
Bubba stopped enough and heard her. He heard the words and murmured, “My wife is here.”
“Okay.” And she let him go.
Kate bypassed him on his way and she exclaimed, “Okay. Robbie and I got as much blankets etc. what you told me to get. He didn’t have any idea about what to do. How’d it go with Bubba?”
“Aiden thinks that her toilet is flooded and I have her doing yoga tapes upstairs.”
“Nice!” Kate chuckled, remembered their situation, and sobered. “Okay, what’s Bubba doing?”
“It sounds as if we’re going to need to get people out of here so I sent him to a neighbor’s to get shiners so that we can leave in the dark. I’d like to get everyone ready by the time he gets back.”
And Kate asked the inevitable question.
“How are we going to get people out of here?”
Dani sighed inwardly and said, “I have no idea.”
“Okay. Wanna hear my thoughts?”
“Hell, yes.”
“Okay, people need to be entertained right now, right? So that they won’t panic and try to drive away and end up dying?”
“Sure,” Dani said dryly.
“Okay, so they need to watch the poker game, but we need Jonah and he’s currently playing the Winner’s game—ironic, huh?”
“Sure.” Dani still waited.
“Okay, so you should find Boone and have him replace Jonah. He can tell them that he’s just substituting for a moment because Aiden really needs her brother…or something.”
“That’s…” Dani lit up. “That would work.” And she rushed off.
She found him and dragged him to a private corner.
She hushed him and said quickly, fiercely, “You can’t ask me why, but you just have to do what I’m telling you to do. I need you to go to the table, tell Jonah that his sister needs him and that you’ll play in his stead until he gets back. Here’s what I can’t explain, not right now—he’s not coming back for the game and you have to stall that game as long as possible. Okay?”
Boone frowned, but he studied her intently and nodded, “Okay.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
He nodded, studied her another moment, and then pushed through the crowd.
Dani knew when he’d taken Jonah’s place because there was a collective sigh of disappointment that ran through the crowd.
And she didn’t wait long until Jonah pushed through in Boone’s stead and stopped abruptly, distracted, as he saw Dani.
“Oh, Aiden needs me.”
He started to walk past, but Dani caught his hand and said forcefully, “No, she doesn’t. That was a lie. I need you.”
“What?”
“Come with me.” Dani pulled him into the first private corner they came across and she said quickly, “There’s flash floods, and the water is already coming into this house. I’ve sent Bubba to get some headlights or shiners from his neighbor and Kate and Robbie rounded up as many flashlights and blankets that they could find.”
She paused. Took a breath. And finished, “We can’t stay in this house and we need to move these people and…Kate called you the Water Whisperer and yes, Boone knows that you’re not going back to that game. He was given instructions to stall the game as long as possible until we have everything figured out.”
She took a breath.
And waited.
Jonah didn’t say anything, but frowned.
“Something—please!”
Jonah flashed a grin and whistled, “You’re really hot right now.”
Dani frowned, but the coil unclenched—slightly.
“Can we focus?”
“We’re focusing. I’m focusing, um…” Jonah crossed to the garage and flipped the lights on. The lights didn’t turn on and he cleared his throat.
“That’s not good.”
“Have you called anyone?”
“Kate called the police station, but they said we’re on our own since we’ve got two of their deputies and…well…you.”
“Aiden’s got a few canoes. We could use them.”
“Canoes aren’t going to keep anyone up. They’ll rock over with the first blast of wind that comes flying.”
“Not for people to canoe in, but they can hold onto it. It’ll keep them adrift, if it gets that bad.”
“What about…can we just keep people in the second story? Would that work?”
“Not this house. I warned Aiden when she bought it. The first flood we get, no matter how small it is—her house is going. They built in the worst possible spot. All the water’s going to slide down and pool by this house, ironic, huh?”
“Kinda tired of irony right now,” Dani said faintly and bit her lip as he climbed a ladder and started inching one of the canoes down from the rafters.
“You’re going…the canoe’s going to break in half if you keep at it that way,” Dani cried out and scrambled atop a freezer as she deftly caught the nose-end of the canoe and together they lowered the canoe from its secured slot. Jonah flipped it on his back and then flipped it to the ground.
“You do that very…”
“I’m the guardian on this river. I canoe—a lot.”
“Oh.” And she stepped back and onto the freezer as Jonah worked at the second and then third canoe.
“Thank god Bubba used to want to be a canoer, huh?” Jonah grinned and Dani saw that he wasn’t worried. He was exhilarated and she shook her head in wonderment.
“What?”