Chapter 8

Don’t be ashamed of who you are. That’s your parent’s job.

-Fact of Life

Winnie

It was four days later when a hurricane rocked our state. One the likes of which we’d never seen before in the history of the United States.

Everyone was scared.

Even us, and we were nowhere close to the coastline where the majority of the devastation was set to take place.

We’d watched the impending hurricane on the news, and when it finally hit that morning, the coastline of Alabama was hit hard with over thirty inches of rain in ten hours.

It was, quite possibly, the most devastating thing in the world to watch.

The news people were standing outside in the midst of a category five hurricane, and they had to hold on to a chain link fence to keep from being blown away.

Behind them was what used to be a mall parking lot but was now completely submerged. Not even the few stray cars in the parking lot could be seen any longer.

They’d just finished showing a time lapse video of the devastation when I got a call.

“Hello?”

“Winnie, this is Bob.”

I smiled. “Hi, Bob. How are you?”

“I’m well. I’m calling to see if you’d be willing to go down to the hurricane affected area and work at our sister hospital for the next week. With the hurricane and the influx of patients, we’re sending down about fifty members of our staff to help.”

I was about to immediately deny him when he said, “There’ll be a ten dollar an hour hazard pay increase, as well as time and a half since you’re already at your hours for this week. Free room and board. You’ll also be fed, and you’ll get bonuses if you do decide to go.”

The yes was coming out of my throat before I’d even had the chance to think.

Ten dollars an hour on top of my twelve fifty an hour would make it twenty-two dollars an hour plus time and a half. Hell yes, I was going to do it.

I had Christmas coming up in a few months!

Not to mention that I’d been forced to give Cody up for the next week thanks to the fall break.

Matt had stopped by earlier in the day to beg me to let him have Cody. It was a teacher in-service week, and all the kids were off for the week while the teachers were still expected to go. I hadn’t been able to refuse him. Not when I knew my son would love to go.

And then Conleigh had surprised me by asking me if she could go see Matt’s parents.

Matt’s parents and Conleigh had always been close, and seeing the pleading look in her eyes had left me with a certainty that I needed to loosen my skirt strings a little.

“That’s good news.” He sounded relieved. “I’m having to look for people that can drive down there. You drive a car, correct?”

I grunted. “Yep. Mine’s not going to make it in anything more than about an inch of water.”

I looked out my window at the same time to glance at my car, only to find Steel backing his truck up to his camo boat that was always in his garage.

I only ever saw it when he was mowing his grass or was working on the car beside the boat and needed the door up for air.

“There are a lot of duck hunters in the area heading out in their boats. I know that a few of the husbands of some of the nurses are doing it. Let me check with them to see if they have any room in their vehicles for you and get back to you.”

Then Bob was gone with a promise to call me back, but I was stuck looking at the man across the street that I somehow knew was about to head down there and do the exact same thing Bob had just described some of the nurses’ husbands doing.

I shoved my phone into my pocket and winced when I took my first step.

I’d had therapy today, and the therapist had pushed me harder than she normally did.

A year ago, when I’d had my spinal stroke, I never thought I’d walk again.

Now, here I was walking...without my cane.

I hadn’t had to use it at all this week, which had been the deciding factor in my therapist handing out the ass whoopin’ she’d given me.

It felt good to have sore muscles, and, as I made my way down the steps with no help there, either, I was smiling.

My smile dropped as soon as I talked to Steel and asked him to take me with him.

***

Steel

“I’m not taking you,” I said as I packed up my truck.

“But why?” She pouted, propping both hands on her shapely hips. “Matt has Cody and will have him for the week since it’s fall break. Conleigh is spending the time with Matt’s parents.”

“Because you’re…”

“Don’t you dare say that I’m a cripple,” she snapped. “I’m NOT a cripple.”

My eyes narrowed.

“I wasn’t going to say that you’re a cripple,” I informed her. “I was going to say a civilian. You have no experience dealing with water rescue or even boats.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Both of my kids are taken care of,” she said. “I’m going because work asked me to and my EMT skills are needed at the hospital. And, honestly, I will be sitting in the truck with you on the drive down there. Nothing else. I swear I won’t say a word if you don’t want me to. Not to mention all you’ll have to do is drop me off at the hospital. Seriously, that’s it. I won’t be riding around with you. I will be there, safe, helping people that you bring in.”

I sighed, long and loud.

“Honey…”

“You know,” she growled. “Matt used to think that I was useless.”

My brows rose.

“He did?”

Winnie was anything but useless. Sure, now she was a little slower getting around since she’d had that spinal stroke, but that didn’t stop her from doing what she wanted to do. She walked faster with her cane at times than I walked.

I felt every single one of my numerous years catching up to me, especially when it rained.

Like fuckin’ today.

Mobile, Gulf Shores, and the rest of the coast had gotten hammered with a hurricane the likes of which I’d never seen before. The huge, category five Hurricane Matt—which still cracked me up that it was the same name as her POS ex-husband—spanned nearly the entire state. It dumped so much fucking rain on us that we’d be feeling its effects for months.

“Yep,” she said. “He said I was a useless pile of skin once after my stroke. It was when we were meeting with our lawyers about who would get what.” She looked down at where she was standing. “So I started going to the gym. Tried to get my ass back in shape…it’s hard, though. I don’t know what I’m doing. But at least I can walk now.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“He did not. Please, tell me he didn’t.”

She smiled sadly. “He did.”

I’d known Matt Holyfield for a long time now. He’d been on the force with us for so long that he was just as much family as my own family—whether I liked him or not. You couldn’t pick family.

But he’d pulled away from us after he’d met his wife and had his first kid. I had known about Winnie, but I hadn’t actually met her until she moved in across the street from me, newly single, with two children in tow.

It just plain surprised me that Matt Holyfield was such a fucking asshole.

“I’ll give you a ride, but only to the hospital. Understand?”

She grinned at me, then bounced slightly on her toes as she clapped her hands.

“You won’t regret this!” she breathed.

That was a lie.

I was already regretting it.

Having her this near to me, that smile aimed my way, was doing things to my heart.

I didn’t want to feel like this about her.

I didn’t want to deal with another woman with a shit ton of problems.

And I wasn’t saying that Winnie was a problem, just that she had a lot of baggage that I wasn’t sure that I could take on.

Not at this point in my life, anyway.

I was well past the age that I should be thinking with my dick.

I would not, under any circumstances, touch one single hair on Winnie’s pretty little head. No matter how much I may want to.

All I had to do to cement that fact was think about my exes. Tracy. Lizzibeth. Lila. Terrel. Kay.

All of them I’d given tiny pieces of my heart and every last one of them had broken what little I’d trusted them with.

I had a feeling that if Winnie got anything from me, she would likely hold onto it and never let go.

And I’d have to break it off because I wasn’t willing to let her get too close. Not to mention it was highly unlikely she’d want an old man like me for the rest of her life. She’d want things that I just couldn’t give her.

Not with what I had on my plate.

Something that I would have to deal with when I got home.

But, the farther and farther we drove together, the more I realized that it might already be too late.

She was under my skin, and I didn’t know what to do about it.