Free Storm Front (Reunited Hearts) by Rachel Curtis Page B

muzzle on the mattress, sniffing at
her hand hopefully.
    She
couldn’t help but smile at the eager brown eyes. “Sorry. I don’t have any food
right now. I’ll try to find you something when I get up.”
    “What
are you going to do with the dog?” Michael asked.
    She
frowned at him. “What do you think? We can’t leave it here on its own.”
    “So
we take it with us?” His voice was skeptical, but Allison couldn’t tell if he
was disapproving or not.
    She
hoped he really wasn’t against taking the dog with them. He’d acted reluctant,
but she thought he secretly kind of liked it. She wouldn’t want any man she’d
slept with to act heartlessly toward a helpless animal.
    “Can
you think of another option?” she asked.
    Michael
sat up, swinging his legs over his side of the bed. “No. I can’t.”
    Sighing
with relief at this sign of Michael’s heart, Allison heaved herself out of the
bed, smoothing down her disheveled hair. “Do you think we’ll be able to get out
of here today?”
    “I
hope so.”
    For
some reason, his answer bothered her, but she told herself it didn't matter
that he seemed ready to be rid of her.
    *
* *
    An hour later, they
were in Allison’s SUV and driving back down the country roads toward the
interstate. They hadn’t even tried the direction of the bridge, knowing it
would still be impassable, but they hoped the road in the other direction
wouldn’t be as flooded and they’d be able to get through to the main roads out
of the area.
    Allison
held her breath as they crested the hill that had stopped them the day before.
She released it in a rush when she saw the roadway beyond.
    “Looks
all right,” Michael said, sounding encouraged. “Still some water but not nearly
so much.”
    There
was some standing water in the dip but only a couple of inches. Allison slowed
down some as she drove the car through the large puddles, and she relaxed as
the vehicle got through it with no problems.
    “We’ll
be all right if that’s the worst of it,” she said. “The area still seems
deserted.”
    “I
guess everyone else evacuated.” Michael leaned back in his seat, his observant
eyes scanning the road before them and the landscape surrounding them. “People
should start coming back today, I imagine.”
    They
drove in silence as Allison thought about how completely isolated they’d been
for the last two days. After a while, she let out a breath. “It will be nice to
get a signal on our phones and do things like check email again.”
    It
would. She had friends who would be worried about her. Not to mention a job she
needed to keep up with. But even the thought of these basic aspects of real
life caused that clench of heaviness inside her again.
    The
more real life pushed its way back into her existence, the more distanced Michael
would become.
    She
was distracted with these troubling thoughts and feelings as she rounded a
curve, so she had to slam on her brakes as she nearly collided with a downed
tree, which had fallen across the road.
    When
they’d jerked to a stop, Allison tried to catch her breath as she studied the
situation before her. “No way to get around it.”
    “No.”
Michael unbuckled, his hand moving to the handle of the passenger door. “It
doesn’t look too heavy. I’ll push it out of the way.”
    Allison
shifted the SUV into park as Michael got out and walked over to the tree. She
watched him as he tried to get a grip on a couple of strong limbs to haul the
fallen tree out of their way.
    He
was wearing his own clothes again—black trousers and blue dress shirt—but his
sleeves were rolled up and the top buttons of the shirt were undone. His messy
dark hair reflected the sunlight streaming through the branches of the trees
surrounding the road, and his lean body was masculine and powerful—long legs,
broad shoulders, narrow hips—as he exerted his strength to move the tree.
    As
she watched, one of the branches he was pulling snapped, and he stumbled back