Free Brave the Storm, Season 2, Episode 3 (Rising Storm) by Lisa Mondello Page B

at the lake?”
    “Which one?”
    “The night after that gig with your brother George over in San Antonio. We drove all the way home with the instruments and the PA system bouncing in the back of truck and decided to ditch George and your sister-in-law because they’d been fighting the entire night.”
    There’d been so many memories, but this one tumbled back as if it were yesterday.
    Anna Mae smiled. “She kept complaining they didn’t have room for all the equipment in that stupid VW Bug she’d bought that day. I never thought that thing would make the trip to begin with but she insisted on bringing it despite my brother wanting to take his own truck. That was long before Mary Louise was born.”
    “We were following them to make sure the car wouldn’t break down. But we pulled off the highway and lost them just before we got to Storm.”
    “We decided to camp out by the lake,” she said as the memories flashed before her eyes. “Except we had no tent.”
    “We were being spontaneous.”
    “We were being stupid. We had no blanket.”
    “We had each other, Annie.” Chase pulled her into his arms and to her surprise, Anna Mae let him. He rested his cheek against hers and started to hum as his feet moved to and fro.
    “Dance with me,” he whispered.
    Her head was swimming. “There’s no music.”
    “I can fix that.” And he began to sing. “ Crazy. I’m crazy for feeling so lonely .”
    A lump formed in her throat. “How could I forget that?”
    “ I’m crazy…”
    He continued to sing softly against her ear. She danced with him slowly as she listened to him, and suddenly she was there at the lake again. The truck radio was playing the Patsy Cline ballad and they danced under the light of a near full moon. And then because the bugs were too plentiful and the instruments were in the bed of the truck, she and Chase locked themselves inside the cab and they made love for the first time.
    “You feel good in my arms, Anna Mae Prager,” Chase whispered. “But then, you always did.”
    Her heart swelled with emotion she didn’t want to feel. And yet she was there in Chase’s arms, a mature woman in the twilight of her life having lived without the man who had been the love of her life. What would their life have been like had they shared moments like this all these years? Her heart broke for what wasn’t, but at the same time, she didn’t want to let go of Chase.
    Chase stopped dancing and tilted her chin with his fingers so she was forced to look at him.
    “I hope that wherever you end up going…whenever you end up leaving here, you’ll be able to keep Patsy,” Anna Mae said.
    “I’m not going anywhere, Annie. And I’m not letting go of you again.” Chase lowered his head and covered her mouth with his. It shocked her at first, but she was powerless to stop it. Her entire body exploded with emotion and a desire she thought was dormant in her. Nonexistent even. She’d thought she’d lived a full life, but it had been a lie. A bigger lie than she’d ever told herself. She now knew she’d been dead inside all these years, pushing away feelings that had become too painful for her to bear without Chase.
    He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He kissed her cheek and then made a trail of kisses along her neck until she moaned softly.
    The realization that came over Anna Mae leveled her. She’d been a shell all these years. And now with one kiss, Chase had managed to fill her again.
    Patsy began to meow, pulling Anna Mae from being lost in Chase’s touch. She heard the front door slam and realized they were no longer alone.
    “Anna Mae?”
    She took a step out of Chase’s arms when she heard Rita Mae’s voice. When she peered up into his face, she saw red-hot desire. His blue eyes had turned a smoky gray and his skin was flushed.
    “Whose truck is out front?”
    Rita Mae walked into the kitchen and stopped short. “What the hell is going on in