Carter remained straight-faced, but Grant could tell he was enjoying himself. “In that case, how about a beer?” Carter asked him. “You’re buying.”
“No, I am,” Karen said, her smile wide. “You boys are awesome.”
“And hey,” Grant said. “We saved the town. Yeah, we are pretty awesome.”
Carew shut files and gathered them up. “No, you’re the same boys who think you can get away with everything by being smart-asses. Now get on out of here; I have work to do. Say hello to your mama for me.”
Grant couldn’t argue with him. He and his brothers walked out, Karen happy and smug, heading to the bar for an afternoon celebration. Grant, who’d started making sure he had his cell phone with him at all times, called Christina with the good news.
***
When the day came for the DNA testing, Grant went by himself to the clinic, getting in early to avoid an encounter with Ray. Dr. Sue said that everything had to be sent away to a lab, but she knew people there, and she’d have the results in a couple of days.
It was May now, and the temperatures had turned hot. A few days after Grant had gone for the test, his tension matched the weather. Black clouds piled up in the north and west, the heat promising storms to come.
Grant watched the clouds as he rode at the ranch, working a new horse at easy tasks. Hill Country didn’t have many tornadoes, not like they did in west Texas, or up around Amarillo and Wichita Falls, but the weather could still be severe.
Grant had spent a summer in north Texas once. Every day they’d had a tornado watch, didn’t matter that the afternoon started out clear and beautiful. By six, the sky could be black with clouds, everyone ready to head for shelter.
But while tornadoes were rare in Riverbed, hellacious thunderstorms and hailstorms were common. As the clouds rose and darkened the afternoon, the horse under him got cagey. Good sign bad weather was coming.
Grant quit training a little early so he’d have time to unsaddle and put the horse, haltered, into a wash rack. A quick rinse and a scrape was all the gelding needed, the air so hot the animal dried pretty fast. Grant finished rubbing him down, and then took him back to his stall. The stable hands were finished mucking for the day, and started replenishing the hay racks.
Grant ducked into the stables office as clouds blotted out the westering sun.
Carter, as usual, was going over the books, clicking around on his computer. “You meeting Christina for dinner tonight?” he asked.
“Yep,” Grant said.
“Better go then,” Carter said, without looking up. “Before this storm hits.”
Carter liked to discuss the business or get Grant’s input on upcoming projects after they finished for the day, but tonight he closed his mouth and said nothing. Carter knew what was important.
“That’s what I had in mind,” Grant said. “See ya.”
He shucked his sweaty clothes for clean ones he kept at the ranch house, started up his truck and drove as quickly as he could into town. The wind kicked up and the first drops of rain spattered on his window as he parked and hurried into the diner.
Shutting out the wind and inhaling the aroma of good food made him feel fine. Even better was Christina waiting in their booth, a warm smile on her face.
They’d been going out like this—taking it in easy paces—for the last two weeks. Having dinner together. Walking under the stars. Christina coming out to watch him ride, sitting in the shade of the covered arena, while Grant trained. Talking about how Christina was feeling with the baby, evading questions from everyone else in town about it.
Sometimes he and Christina drove up the highway to the one movie theater in River County to watch the latest releases. Not just chick movies—Christina enjoyed edge-of-seat action-adventure thrillers as much as Grant did.
Or they’d sit on the porch either at the ranch or Christina’s house. At the ranch they were surrounded by family, banter, and laughter.
At Christina’s they’d sit quietly on the porch, holding hands, before they went into the house to spend the night together. If Christina didn’t feel well, they’d simply lie entwined in the dark. The nights Christina was energetic, they made love as though they’d never stop.
It was a sparkling time, a special time. Grant and Christina came together without heat. No going over the hurts of the past, no speculating about the future.
The future was coming up on them fast, though. Tomorrow, Dr. Sue had said, it would all be clear.
Grant had a box in his pocket he wanted to bring out, but he was waiting until they knew, so Christina could decide, without doubt, what she wanted to do.
“You just made it,” Christina said, watching the rain spatter the windows. “I ordered you an iced tea. Unsweetened, no lemon.”
Just as he liked it. “Great. Thanks.”
This was what marriage would be. Meeting up after work, planning the evening, Christina knowing exactly what Grant wanted to eat and drink. Talking about little things no one else would care about, no drama or trying to perform for each other.
Just love and intense happiness.
The rain fell harder. Grant glanced out the window and was no longer able to see across the parking lot. Then came a pounding on the roof as the rain turned white.
“Hail, yeah!” someone in the restaurant yelled.
Christina rolled her eyes. “That was only funny the first twenty times I heard him say it.”
“Clint needs new material,” Grant agreed. “Hey, tomorrow, you know … after …” After they learned the test results. “Why don’t we take a drive? Maybe go out to LBJ, have a picnic, take a boat out. You know, kid stuff.”
He didn’t have to add if the weather’s better, because this storm would be long gone by morning. At the moment, though, the hail pounded down outside, two-inch chunks of ice that bounced off cars and the asphalt, slamming into the windows, which fortunately held.
“Sure.” Christina gave him a strong smile, the one that made her beautiful. “Maybe you’ll go swimming, and I can see you in a thong.”
Grant barked a laugh. “Yeah, right. In what universe?”
“You have a nice ass. I’d pay to see you walking around the shore in nothing but a teeny little piece of fabric.”
Grant leaned toward her. “You don’t have to pay, baby. I’ll do you a striptease for free.”
“Not in my restaurant,” Mrs. Ward said, halting by their table. “Once you’re out of here, what you do is your business. Now, what can I get you two?”
At that moment, someone in the back yelled, and curses rolled from the kitchen.
Mrs. Ward’s brows slammed together. “I’ve been having some leaks. The roofers swear they fixed them all, but this is what happens when you have flat roofs and Texas rains.”
“Why don’t you go take care of that?” Grant asked, his face still warm from being caught offering the striptease.
“You two want your usual?” Mrs. Ward asked, poised to go.
“That would be great,” Christina said.
Mrs. Ward hustled away, her voice rising as she reached the kitchen. “What the hell? You call those people and tell them …”
“We might have rainwater on our steaks,” Grant said. “Doesn’t matter.” He reached over and took Christina’s hand. She squeezed his fingers. “As long as we’re here together, having fun.”
Christina opened her mouth to answer. Whatever she’d been about to say, Grant never knew, because at that moment, the entire roof groaned. Plaster crashed down from above followed by a torrent of dirt and water.
Grant was out of the booth the second he saw plaster dust in his iced tea. He grabbed Christina and yanked her down with him, shoving her under the table moments before the entire section of the ceiling collapsed.
Chapter Eighteen
Christina yelped as Grant landed on top of her, pressing her into the cold vinyl floor. Ceiling tiles, bolts, and pieces of metal poured around them, followed by the water that had built up on
the roof to send it smashing down.
The place had gone dark, fuses blowing. People screamed. One man yelled into a cell phone, calling for the fire department.
Christina held on to Grant as his back took the bulk of the mess.
“You okay?” he kept saying. “You okay, Christina?”
He wiped dirt from her face. The deluge finally eased but didn’t completely cease, a constant patter taking its place.
“I’m going to climb out,” Grant said in her ear. “Hang on to me; I’ll get you through.”
Christina complied. Grant backed out from under the booth, throwing off pieces of ceiling tile as he went. He kicked and cleared debris away, as others were doing, then set Christina on her feet.
The downpour of ceiling tile and water had stopped, but the roof was still making noises Christina didn’t like.
Mrs. Ward’s voice sounded over the din. “If you can all go out the back door and get to the store, we can take shelter there. Keep the street and parking lot clear for the emergency crews. Anyone hurt?”
No one admitted to being, though one child cried loudly.
“Come on.” Grant had his arm around Christina’s waist.
He guided her out the back door, both of them wincing as the hail came down. The downpour had lightened the slightest bit, but the hailstones stung where they stuck.
Grant’s truck was close, but if the hail grew heavy again, they wouldn’t necessarily be safe inside the cab. Hail could break windows and destroy vehicles in a heartbeat.
The convenience store, a much newer structure, had tall, solid awnings, and a thick-walled, windowless storage room that doubled as a tornado shelter. They could wait it out there.
Halfway across the slippery, cold, crowded parking lot, Christina felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. She gasped, but it went away as rapidly as it had come. She said nothing until it happened again—a cramp that twisted her insides and made her want to double over.
Fear as icy as the hail washed over her. “Grant!” she said in a panic.
Grant caught the terror in her voice. “What is it, sweetie? What’s wrong?”
“I need to go to the hospital.” Christina’s words caught, her throat tight. “Right now.”
Grant didn’t need to ask a barrage of questions. He understood.
He looked up and down the street, but there was no sign of any fire truck or ambulance yet. Emergency vehicles had to come in from the highway, and the roads were white with falling hail.
“Shit,” Grant said, then started for his truck. “Come on.”
A couple of people tried to stop them and ask what the matter was, but Grant simply shouldered his way through. He got Christina into the truck and cranked it to life.
The patrons from the diner were hurrying through the north side of the parking lot, making for the store, so Grant squealed off to the south driveway, which led them in the opposite direction they needed to go. He drove as fast as he could around three sides of the courthouse square to the north road, and headed out of town.
“Hang on, sweetheart,” Grant said, and drove directly into the storm.
Christina nodded. After the last pain, the cramps had subsided, but she clenched the seat, terrified they would return.
She couldn’t lose this baby. She couldn’t. Christina knew in her heart that if she didn’t bring this baby to term, she’d never have the chance to have another.
Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.
“No,” Christina sobbed.
Grant set his warm hand over her closed one. “I’m going to get you there all right, sugar. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, you got it?”
Christina nodded tightly again.
The truck spun as Grant took the corner to the highway, but he steadied it with an easy touch. No one else was on the road; the pavement was empty and gleaming in the dark.
Lightning filled the sky, and thunder boomed on top of it. The hail thickened, beating on the roof until the din blotted out all other sound.
Christina sucked in a breath as the truck slid again. “Grant, you are crazy!”
Grant let go of her hand to crank the steering wheel until they came out of the skid. “I am, but I’m good at what I do. I’m not losing you!”
“You won’t!” Christina yelled over the hail. “Not ever.” They were meant to be together—all this stuff shoving them toward each other couldn’t be a coincidence.
Call it God or destiny or the grand scheme of the universe, any event that had tried to tear them apart hadn’t been able to part them forever. They came back, like two ends of a stretched rubber band. Didn’t matter how far forces pulled them, they’d snap back together in the end. And who was Christina to defy the universe?
“Hot damn!” Grant shouted in response.
Hail blotted out almost everything, including the yellow line in the middle of the road, the brush on either side of it. Grant’s headlights glittered on falling ice.
Christina shouted, “You know, if we wreck on the way, none of this will matter.”
“We won’t. Hang on!”
The truck spun again, and again, Grant calmly righted it. He knew this vehicle well, and coaxed it to work like he wooed his horses.
Christina laughed out loud. In spite of her absolute fear and this wild weather, Grant was taking care of her, just like he always did.
“I love you, Grant Campbell!” she said at the top of her voice. “Will you marry me?”
“What?” Grant stared at her a split second before he swung back to peer down the road.
“I said, will you marry me?”
“Shit, woman!”
“Is that a no?” Christina was shaking all over from terror and adrenaline rush. “Because I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“Damn it all to hell, baby, I’m supposed to be asking you that.”
“Then why haven’t you?” Christina reached out and put her hand on his warm thigh—not enough to distract him, but because she needed to be touching him. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere!”
“Because I thought you’d want to wait. You know—to find out.”
She laughed again, her laughter tinged with hysteria. “I thought you wanted to wait. So you could decide whether to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere, either!” Grant yelled at her. “But I swear to you I’m ready to pop the question. I have a box in my pocket with your Aunt Caroline’s engagement ring. Your uncle gave it to me.”
Christina stared. “What?”
“I said, your uncle …”
“I heard you. I mean, why?”
“’Cause he loves you, I guess. He gave me the ring and said I should ask you, because we belong together. We always have. He said that being apart for the last year was just us getting our heads out of our asses.”
“Wait, my uncle really said getting our heads out of our asses?”
“Not in so many words.” Grant’s mouth twitched, but his body was stiff with tension. “But I know what he meant. No matter how much we’re apart, we’re still together. Why not make it official?”
“Karen said the same thing.”
Grant barked a laugh. “Good old Karen. Mrs. Kaye did too.”
“Well, then—if everyone in town thinks we should get married, why don’t we?”
“All right then.” Grant got the truck around a bend in the road without sliding. “Yes, damn it, I’ll marry you!”
Christina clapped her arm over her abdomen as another cramp came, not as bad this time, but even so, scary as hell. “I love you, Grant,” she gasped.
“I love you too, baby. Hang on.”
The slackening hail became heavy rain as Grant swung into the parking lot of the clinic. He screeched to a halt at the emergency room doors and ran around to help her inside.
An orderly saw them stumble toward the door, came out with a wheelchair, a nurse with a clipboard following.
“We got her,” the nurse said. She knew Grant and his family
by name. “You go park, Mr. Campbell. We’ll take care of her.”
Christina gave him a nod. Grant stood like a man pole-axed, his face gray, as he watched Christina be wheeled inside the clinic, and then out of sight.
***
Grant waited for news. He sat in the stiff chairs of the waiting room he’d reposed in so often over the years when his brothers were brought in for injuries, or else he paced in the open area before the elevator.
Time crawled. Whenever he looked at his watch, he found that only one or two minutes had gone by since the last time he’d checked. This was turning into one of the longest nights of his life.
Grant had called his mom and told her what happened. No, she shouldn’t come out there, he said, and neither should Bailey. The roads were way too dangerous. He’d keep them posted, and when the weather let up, they could drive over.
Outside the long windows, the sky lit top to bottom with streaks of lightning as the storm marched across the plains to the river. Rain filmed the windows, and the occasional handful of hail spattered out of the darkness into the glass.
Grant waited. The box with the ring was heavy in his jacket pocket, the jacket itself soaked with water. But the ring was safe. He’d made sure of that.
Two hours went by at a snail’s pace. The rain calmed, but wind bent the small trees in the parking lot and lightning flickered against blackness.
“Mr. Campbell,” a nurse said. “Come on back. She’s asking for you.”
Grant nearly ran for the corridor past the nurse’s station—the nurse had to hurry to get ahead of him.
“She all right?” Grant didn’t wait for an answer but charged into Christina’s room.
Christina lay back against the half-raised bed. Her face was bloodless, but her eyes didn’t show the haunted look he’d feared.
“You okay?” Grant asked, afraid of the answer.
Christina gave him a faint smile and slid her hand to her abdomen. “We’re both all right.”
“Thank God,” Grant said fervently. He’d never said a truer prayer in his life. He dropped to the chair next to her bed, his head going to his hands. “Thank God.”