Love in the Time of Hurricanes by CC Bridges

Author:CC Bridges [Bridges, CC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-333-6
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

THE WIND rattled the windows with violent force, making me wish we’d boarded up the ones in the apartment too. Every so often an especially loud gust would slam with a bang, causing me to jump. Wind shouldn’t sound like that. The staccato kept up all morning and into the afternoon, a harsh sound without rhythm. It got so bad Lou decided to check on the windows downstairs. After his family had all gone home last night, it was up to him to make sure the restaurant didn’t blow away.

I sat on the couch to wait with the TV playing the news. I had my laptop open next to me, but I hadn’t been able to concentrate with that noise. They’d canceled classes for the day, and theoretically I knew what I should be working on next, but the numbers in my accounting problems seemed pointless. Who cared about spending variance when the house might be falling down?

Oddly enough, there hadn’t been much rain. I’d expected it—you know, hurricane and all. But instead of torrents of water, all I could hear was the damn wind, howling like a fucked-up werewolf. I put my hands on my ears, willing it to go away. I didn’t want to hear about high tide and the storm surge. I wanted it to stop and everything to be fine again.

Nibbles walked between my legs, batting at my jeans demanding attention. He didn’t seem too bothered. Weren’t animals supposed to have some sort of sixth sense about storms and shit? Maybe he knew he was safe here? I reached down to scratch behind his ears, trying to focus on the way the soft fur felt beneath my fingers.

Lou came up from downstairs and closed the door behind him. “Windows still boarded up. I didn’t think we needed it, but it’s looking pretty bad out there.”

“I’ve never heard anything like this.” My voice trembled, and I swallowed to try to calm down. But another slam of the wind had me cringing in response. Would this never stop? I rubbed my arms, trying to get warm. It wasn’t cold, not really, but it felt like all the hairs on my skin were tingling.

Lou looked through the front window, flicking the blinds up for a moment. His lips thinned into a single line, and if Lou was bothered, I knew it couldn’t be good out there. He let the blinds fall before he turned around, grabbed the remote, and shut off the TV.

“It’s time to stop listening.”

“How?” I closed the laptop, giving up any pretense of getting work done.

“Do you want to see my vinyl collection?” Lou gestured to a large wooden cabinet along the wall that I’d noticed but hadn’t wondered too much about. He knelt and pulled open a latch to reveal a turntable and rows of records behind the door.

I went over to take a closer look. Too bad I couldn’t think up an innuendo about his record collection. Since our encounter last night, I’d been hypersensitive, wondering when to proposition Lou again.

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