Evan

I should be handed a medal with how perfectly everything is going according to plan. Got Bella right where I need her to be. Thanks, Logan.

But I don’t feel like I’m winning here. I actually feel like I’m losing a bit. Like everything could spiral out of control at the drop of a hat.

I need to be on top of my game.

I need to not let this girl phase me.

Easy. It should be easy. But it’s turning out to be very fucking hard. (No pun intended.)

I knock on the door to Tucker’s house early the next morning. I'm hoping he answers the door, so I can have a little chat with him, but I’m not disappointed when Bella, looking like a goddess in sky blue shorts and a white tank, does instead. I’m so fucked.

“You ready?” I ask her.

“I am.” She shuts the door behind her and I give a nod to Tucker’s truck in the drive.

“He's off today?”

“Just about everyone is. The garage he works at has no power.” She climbs into my truck.

“Ah, that sucks.” I glance at the time on the dash of my truck, silently memorizing it.

“You late for something?” Bella asks, smiling at me like she doesn’t have a care in the world.

And at her age she shouldn’t.

I wish I didn’t.

“I just have work today.”

I pull out of Tucker’s drive, and head to my house. The town works quickly to clean up after the hurricane, and hopefully soon everything will be back to normal.

The ride is quiet, and I turn up the radio and let the truck fill with songs of happy endings. She stares out the window, watching as I cross over the train tracks.

“It’s nice on this side of town. Like even the hurricane didn’t want to mess it up too much.”

“Stronger foundations.” I smile at her. “I do have good news, though.”

“What’s that?” The sun catches her eyes, and it’s really something else the way the brown with green flecks make me want to pull her into my lap and fuck her. Did I just really think that?

“Power.”

She claps her hands. “Oh, that’s great.”

I turn down my street. “It’s actually a generator, but the neighbors have their power back, so it shouldn’t be long until my grid is back up.”

I drop her off at my house and tell her I’ll be home soon. It’s almost feels domesticated, and I have to say I kind of like it.

One thing I’m learning though: the aftermath of the hurricane is ten times worse than the actual storm itself. Every gas station for the last thirty miles has been out of gas. Not even as I drive out of town and into the bigger city can I find anything. I know it seems like a waste, I’m driving around burning what little gas I have in order to just get gas, but I need to keep the generator running. I searched high and low for a generator, so I wouldn’t have Bella at my house without power.

Just when I’m ready to give up and head back home, I finally spot a gas truck pulling up to the one lone store that actually has power. I swoop in and wait at a pump until the guy climbs down from the truck and walks inside. He takes his sweet ass time in the store, though, buying shit and talking to the girl behind the counter.

“Come the fuck on,” I mutter.

I hate leaving Bella at my house alone, because I'm worried about her rifling through my things, but I need space to be able to check in with Levinthal and figure out what I’m going to do now that her trailer has become literal trash.

I press the L on my contacts marking Levinthal’s name. I don’t even think I hear the line ring before he answers.

“You have some serious explaining to do.”

“There’s kind of this problem with mother nature being a real motherfucker right now. Kind of out of my control. Can’t exactly stop hurricanes from passing through.”

“Where’s Tucker?”

“I’m on it,” I say, coolly.

“Where’s the girl? Have you made progress with that yet?”

“Listen, this is my deal. I’m in charge here. I’m right where I want to be.”

“Just get it done.”

And I will. I always do. There’s not a thing in the world you can place in front of me and I won’t get it done. Any challenge you want, I’ll succeed. Because that’s the type of person I am. I work best under pressure, and I don’t give a fuck who I cross along the way. No rain. No sleet. No hail. I’m the postmaster of my own life. And let me say one more thing. You may think I’m an asshole for leading on an unsuspecting Bella, but you know what? I’ve got a plan there too.

I just need to keep my heart out of it and keep my eye on the prize.

Something rustles behind me. A too thin dog scuttles around the truck, barking once at me. He barks again, and I call him to my side. “Come.”

The large German Shepherd obeys instantly, sitting right at my knee. He has a collar that says, “Shep” with an address and phone number but when I call it, bad news. I know, that sounds like it would be good news, I found his dog, but the problem is that the old guy, Mr. Ford, apparently a Vietnam War veteran, according to his daughter, died in his sleep last night. So, now I have a dog. Things are really not going according to plan.