Free Rushing Waters by Danielle Steel Page B

tomorrow, after things calm down.”
    “He left you alone with the girls?” Charles was shocked, although he usually tried to refrain from making comments about Nigel to her.
    “All the equipment he owns is in his studio. He can’t afford to just leave it, and stay with us. He’ll turn up sooner or later, and we’re fine. The girls aren’t even scared. They’re happy playing with the other kids. They think it’s an adventure.” She had packed bags for all three of them, with enough clothes for a few days, toiletries, medicine, and their passports. Hers was important because she had a work visa in it from
Vogue.
And Charles had an idea as he listened to her. He didn’t know how she would feel about it, but he would have preferred staying close to the girls.
    “Would you mind terribly if I come to the shelter to see them? I don’t have to stay if you don’t want me to. And if Nigel comes, I’ll leave. But I’ve been waiting to see them all weekend.” She hesitated for only an instant as she thought about it, but she couldn’t see any harm in it, and she was sure Nigel would understand. He didn’t like Charles, but had no real issue with him, since he was the winner in the contest for her.
    “That’s fine. He’ll probably come tonight, but not till late. He couldn’t call me either since my battery was dead, so I don’t know his plans. But the girls would love to see you.”
    “Thank you,” he said gratefully. “They haven’t evacuated my hotel yet, but they might later.” She told him where the shelter was located, in a school not far from where he was, and a few minutes later he was braving the fierce winds, and walking toward the temporary shelter three blocks away. It was pandemonium when he got there, with close to a thousand people in the gym and designated classrooms, on cots and in sleeping bags on the floor. Just as she had said, there were dogs, cats, a woman with two parrots in a cage, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, and a boy with an iguana on his head. There were children of all ages running everywhere, and food was being served in the school cafeteria. Charles spent twenty minutes wending his way through the crowd, and then he saw them in the corner of the gym. Gina was talking to a group of women, and Lydia and Chloe were playing tag with their new friends and squealing with delight. Gina didn’t see him until he was standing next to her, relieved to have found them. People looked as though they had dressed hastily, and the room was stifling from the heat of a thousand bodies. The smell of food and people was heavy in the air. Gina glanced up at Charles and smiled cautiously when she saw him.
    “I can’t believe you found us.”
    “Neither can I.” He was wearing jeans, as she was, and a perfectly starched collared blue shirt, with his raincoat over his arm. He looked as respectable as he always did, and she was wearing a T-shirt with no bra with her jeans, and silver sandals. And by then his daughters had spotted him and came running over.
    “Daddy!” they screamed happily, and threw their arms around his legs. “How did you know we were here? Did you come to New York just to see us? A hurricane is coming, named Ophelia.”
    “There’s a girl in my class named Ophelia,” Lydia added. “She’s mean and I don’t like her.” Charles smiled at what she said.
    “I know about the hurricane,” he told them, squatting down with an arm around each of them as he hugged them. “I came on business, and I’ve been trying to find you since Friday. Mommy just told me you were at the shelter, so here I am.” He looked as ecstatic as they did.
    “Can we have ice cream? They have some in the cafeteria.” A nearby supermarket had donated it to use immediately, before it could melt once the power was off. Gina nodded when Charles glanced at her for her permission. He followed the girls to the cafeteria then, and they were back half an hour later, as the girls finished the last of