From Glowing Embers by Emilie Richards

Author:Emilie Richards [Richards, Emilie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary, Romance, Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 0373586434
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 1988-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

* * *

JULIANNA GOT THROUGH the rest of the day as well as she could. Between comforting Jody and organizing and preparing meals—a job Paige admitted that she hated—she kept herself out of the mainstream of conversation. While the others taped windows and barricaded furniture against two of the three glass doors, Julianna cooked whatever she could find that would keep for a day or two without refrigeration. So far they had experienced no problems with power outages, but everyone knew it could happen anytime, and she wanted to be prepared.

More than prepared, she wanted to be busy and as far away from Gray as possible. Buried feelings were pushing to the surface. She didn’t want to feel anything, not jealousy, not sadness, not the irrational fear that the howling winds and driving rain induced in her. She wanted to be in bed, asleep, without so much as dreams to remind her she was alive. But when it came time to go to bed, sleep came with difficulty.

In the hours just before dawn, the rain stopped. Sometime during the long night she had made a fragile peace with the wind’s roar and the unrelenting staccato rhythm of the rain, but now their absence woke her immediately.

She lay in bed listening to the soft sounds of Jody’s breathing. If the storm had ended, she wanted proof. Quietly she slipped on a muumuu. Without bothering to put on shoes, she tiptoed out of the bedroom and closed the door behind her. The house was dark and still, and she felt her way to a window to open the curtains. Only Dillon and Gray’s handiwork greeted her. She had forgotten that most of the windows had been covered with plywood.

A large glass door leading to a backyard lanai had been impossible to protect with anything more substantial than masking tape. Julianna found her way there and slid the door open, stepping out and closing the door behind her. When she turned back to gaze out into the darkness, she found she wasn’t alone.

“Did the silence wake you, too?” Gray leaned against the railing, his arms crossed against his chest.

Julianna had spent most of yesterday avoiding Gray. Now, she had forced this encounter.

“I wanted to be sure I wasn’t imagining the storm was over,” she answered, moving to the opposite end of the lanai. “I didn’t know anyone else was up.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.” His words were traced with bitterness.

“Do you know whether this is just a respite, or has the storm moved away?”

“Eve’s an unpredictable, disorganized lady. Maybe she’s going off on a little Pacific cruise.”

“Bon voyage.” Julianna put both hands on the railing and leaned against it, shutting her eyes. She wanted to go back inside, but she knew Gray would see it as a retreat. Instead she drew a deep breath. “Smell that air. The rain pours down hard enough to crush life from the flowers, but all it does is release their perfume.”

“Too bad there isn’t a parallel for humans.

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