A Touch of Temptation by Julie Blair

Author:Julie Blair [Blair, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2016-06-12T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Kate jumped in the middle of a puddle, splashing water onto Chris’s dark-green rain pants. She felt like a little kid in the yellow rain suit she’d found in the closet. Way too big for her, she’d had to roll up the cuffs on both pants and jacket.

Chris darted to another puddle and returned the favor.

“What’s that noise?” Like a really loud lawnmower.

“Generator.” Chris pointed to a house on the right. “That’s why they have lights.”

“Why don’t you have one?”

“Too expensive.”

“I’ll ask Gran to put one in. If there’s another bad storm you can stay in her cabin.” They walked down the middle of the street that was in much the same shape as it had been earlier, covered in debris. Muddy water streamed along the edges of the road, around overturned trash cans in some places. The sky was a churning gray cap above them, but it wasn’t raining, and the wind had quieted considerably. People were taking advantage of the lull to clean gutters or repair storm damage.

“Oh, my God.” Kate stopped when the downed tree came into view, then ran toward it in the too-tight rubber boots. It looked monstrous. A car she hadn’t noticed this morning was pinned beneath it. Like the urge to look at a wreck on the highway, it was impossible not to look at the demolished house on the left.

Two men in rain gear stood nearby. “Heard on my scanner Highway 9’s closed in both directions because of mudslides,” one of them said. “They’ve shut down 17. Can’t get to Santa Cruz or San Jose. PG&E tower went down. Won’t have electricity for days.”

“Glad I put that generator in,” the other man said. “Won’t miss the football games tomorrow.”

Kate put her arm around Chris as they walked home. If not for Chris she’d be scared. “Oh, my, gosh. I know her.” She pointed to an older woman wearing a purple rain slicker and jeans tucked into knee-high rubber boots who was shoveling mud away from the side of her house. She hurried over. “Les?”

“Well, I’ll be. Kate,” the woman said. Wisps of gray hair sprouted from beneath a blue knit cap. “Is Katherine here?”

“No.”

“This is Gran’s friend Les,” she said when Chris joined them. “My neighbor, Chris.”

“The landscaper.” Les pointed to Chris’s ball cap.

“What happened?” Chris asked.

“Blasted retaining wall failed.”

“We’ll help. Extra shovels?” Kate zipped her jacket against the wind that was picking up.

“Shed in back.” Les studied her for a moment. “You look like Katherine when she was your age.”

“Let’s do this before it pours again,” Chris said, returning from the shed and handing Kate a shovel.

“Can you fit me into your schedule to repair that wall?” Les asked Chris an hour later when they’d cleared the mud away from the foundation and dug a gully to channel the next round of runoff away from the house.

“I’ll try next week.”

“Worst storm I’ve seen in forty years.” Les looked up as it started to rain again. “Going to get worse.”

“We’ll check on you tomorrow.

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