I heard Marshall suck a deep breath in at the sight, and I kicked myself because he was probably still shaken from his experience at the gas station. “Come on. We need to head inside. This storm isn’t done with us yet.”
When I heard a dismayed groan, I looked back down to find Marshall’s shoulders hovering around his ears as he stared at the storm above us. Sympathy filled me as I pressed my lips together and grimaced. Marshall didn’t strike me as the type to be typically timid, not with the way he’d left his car to gain access to the inside of the gas station, but the day had seriously rattled him to the core. To try to lend him some of my strength, I lifted my hand and gently pinched his chin between my thumb and forefinger to hold him in place so I could meet his wide eyes. “Hey, now. None of that. You’re safe, I promise.”
A large part of me wanted to lean forward and press my lips to his forehead, but I held back.
Too young, too young.
Plus, he probably wouldn’t even be interested anyway. I was a single father, which meant that even if hewasshowing any signs of attraction to me, he wouldn’t only be dating me; he’d need to take Rose into consideration as well. We were a package deal. There wasn’t a man out there at his age that wouldpossiblybe interested in a much-older manandhis almost-teenage daughter. Right? Not that I’d ever looked, but I knew what I’d been like around his age. Playing the field, hooking up every weekend at random bars, staying up all night dancing. Being a father figure had never been on the list.
Sighing in resignation, I stepped back to help him down from the cab of the truck.
And yet even with all those damn thoughts running through my mind, I couldn’t bring myself to let his hand go while I picked up his duffel from the cab and led him toward the house.
Maybe Rose’s optimism was rubbing off on me, no matter how misplaced it was.
Chapter Four
Marshall
AsDanielledmetoward his house, I stared in amazement at our interlocked fingers, our hands swinging back and forth slightly with every step.
Why was it that contact with him seemed to drain the tension from my body? Did he know what he was doing to me every time he touched me? Was that why he continued to hold my hand?
After passing the chaotic scenes on the roads left behind by the twister, my gut was churning. That could have been me. I could have been swept up by an uncontrollable vortex of wind, only to be thrown carelessly to the ground, subject to the whim of Mother Nature’s toddler-like temper tantrum.
But I was here. Alive, safe, and completely uninjured, when so many others looked like they weren’t.
What had I done to get so lucky?
The crack of thunder that had interrupted us was a timely reminder that things could all change again in a heartbeat. Yes, I’d been lucky so far today, but as Daniel had pointed out,the storm still raged on above us, threatening to drop another tornado at any second.
A shiver skittered down my spine. Hadn’t we all had enough drama for the day?
My pulsing anxiety stalked me with every step, but his touch seemed to ground me in a way nothing else had.
Why? Was my attraction to him truly that much of a barrier against my totally justified and completely reasonable worries?
After we entered the house through the covered patio, we walked down a short but wide corridor that opened into a large open room. To the left were sofas, chairs, and a billiard table, and to the right was the kitchen with an island.
He continued to hold my hand as we headed through the kitchen into what looked like an oversized pantry. Strangely, there was an open door nestled amongst the shelving that led to a U-shaped set of stairs, which disappeared below us. The faint glow of a TV and what sounded like a weather presenter echoed up the steps.
“This is our storm shelter,” Daniel said, leading me downstairs and shutting the door behind us. “We’re completely safe down here. It’s got everything we need to survive for a couple of days if the worst were to happen.”
We turned a corner at the bottom of the U-shaped stairs into a long, narrow room the size of the pantry immediately above us. At one end of the room was the TV that had been reflecting its light upstairs. Sure enough, it was tuned to what looked like the local weather channel.
Rose was sitting on one of the two sofas in the room, a bowl of popcorn in her lap and Bucky nestled next to her with his head on her thigh. She was absently scratching at his ears when we walked in, which dwindled when she slid her eyes down our arms to see our linked hands. A slow grin spread over her facebefore she looked me straight in the eye and raised an expectant eyebrow.
Embarrassed and feeling my cheeks flush from her attention, I loosened my grip on her father’s hand, but that only made Daniel glance my way in concern. He eyed my burning cheeks, then Rose’s knowing smile and rolled his eyes. After dropping my duffel near the door, he guided me to the other sofa in the room before he turned around and pointed at her. “Not a word, you. This has nothing to do with our conversation from earlier.”
Well, that sounded intriguing.
Her smile exploded into a joy-filled laugh. “Sure, Daddy Danny. Whatever you say.”
Settling into the seat next to me, he grumbled at her in exasperation, but when he turned back to face me, I saw a clear glint of amused affection on his face. He decided to ignore her giggling and continued his verbal tour of their storm shelter. “This room is reinforced steel and concrete. It has its own uninterrupted power source that we use to run the weather channel when there’s a tornado warning and we need to shelter in place.” He pointed out a door to the left of the stairs. “Behind that door is a toilet, which is connected to the bathroom plumbing above, but again, it’s set behind reinforced walls and ceiling.”
“We have the best shelter in town,” Rose piped up, proud as punch. She popped some more popcorn kernels into her mouth, munching away happily as she resumed her petting of Bucky.
Daniel let out a pleased hum, preening a little at her words.
