Jill Shalvis: Storm Watch

Dustin merely grinned.

Oblivious, Lizzy squeezed Dustin’s hand. “You’re sweet.”

Sweet? His brother was sweet? What about him? He was the one who’d gotten out of bed and leaped into the storm to help her, the one who hadn’t left her side for over twenty-four hours. Dammit, he was the sweet one!

Dustin gave Lizzy one last hug, and then a damn kiss on the cheek that was only a fraction from meeting her lips, sending Jason another look over his shoulder before getting back into his own boat. “Are you sure?” he said directly to Lizzy.

“Sure what?” Jason asked.

“I’m sure,” Lizzy said, and blew Dustin a kiss.

“Sure what?”

Dustin looked at Jason, his expression softening. “Yeah, definitely a sight for sore eyes.”

And then he was gone.

Jason turned to Lizzy, who avoided his gaze as they pushed off and once again began making their way toward her neighborhood.

The silence grew until Jason couldn’t take it. Even knowing he sounded like an ass didn’t keep the words in. “He’s taken, you know. And I’ve only met her once, but I can tell you this much. Cristina doesn’t share.”

Lizzy looked over at him, her eyes going so glacial as to nearly freeze his balls off. “Are you insinuating that I’m interested in your brother? Sexually? ”

He opened his mouth but she held up a finger. “No, seriously,” she said. “Is that what you’re suggesting? That I would be sexual with you, while also being sexual with him?”

Well, shit. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Yes, I believe you did.”

“Okay, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

“How about pissing me off? Did you mean to do that? Because that you succeeded at.” She snatched the single oar out of his hand and whirled away from him, using her obvious pent-up temper to steer.

He grimaced. “You need to keep the oar-”

She sent him a death glare and he raised his hands, letting her continue. Incorrectly. He tried not to wince when they spun in a circle, then nearly hit the top of a parking meter. “I didn’t think you were doing my brother,” he said to her stiff spine. “It was instinctive. You were plastered up all over him, and-” He broke it off when once again she whirled on him, watching warily how she gripped the oar as if just by being in her hands it was tempting her to clobber him. “Yeah, about that oar,” he said. “You-”

She slammed it back into the water, and unfortunately right into a pole. Before he could react, she went flying in the water. He spared one blink of an eye to sigh and think “shit!” before he dove in after her.

She saved herself so that by the time he got to her, she didn’t need him. But he still kept his hands on her, helping her into the boat.

“Thanks.”

She said it so begrudgingly he had to let out a short laugh as he hoisted himself up to the edge of the raft and looked at her. “And you should know, I kiss better than Dustin.”

She stared at him, then planted a hand in the middle of his chest and shoved, dunking him back into the water.

LIZZY LOVED HER neighborhood. It had gone south in the eighties, been revitalized in the nineties, and had stood still in time since, so the houses were far more affordable than on the other side of town.

The water level hadn’t risen as high here, only a few feet. Most houses they passed hadn’t flooded, thanks to their concrete footings and foundations.

But the devastation still shocked her. Trees down. Cars buried under them. Roofs destroyed. Yards gone.

And it was still raining.

“Are you hanging in okay?” he asked quietly.

She looked at him, then closed her eyes. “Don’t be nice.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’ll confuse me.”

He blinked, then shook his wet head. “Okay, you’re going to have to explain that to me.”

“I really want to stay mad at you. So if you don’t mind, you need to go back to being an ass.”

“And you’ll go back to what?”

“Being Lizzy. A sister. A nurse. It’s what I do, it’s what makes me happy.”

“And a soon-to-be doctor,” he reminded her.

Right. How had she forgotten that? “Yes, but the point is the happy part.”

“Everyone should do what makes them happy.”

“Yes,” she whispered, wondering why then she didn’t feel that way.

They turned the corner to her street, where they were able to abandon the raft and wade the rest of the way in. They passed her neighbor’s house; Mike’s okay, not too badly damaged. Her house was the last on the street. She’d lost a tree in her front yard, which had missed her roof by inches, but at least she still had a roof. She stared at the place in relief. “I half expected it to be gone.”

It was tiny inside, postage-stamp tiny, with the kitchen and living room all together, and two little bedrooms off a small hallway, with one bathroom between them, but it was hers. All hers, cozy and neat, just how she’d left it.

And empty. “She’s not here.”

Jason walked through, his big, wet body making the rooms appear even smaller. He stopped in front of her, running his hands up and down her arms, making her realize she was still shivering. “Which meant she really did get out. That’s a good thing, Lizzy.”

Nodding, she tried to turn away, but he held her. “About us.”

“Jason-”

“You stayed in Santa Rey when you could have left and gotten the life you wanted for yourself. That’s admirable.”

“I stayed because my sister needed me. We’ve been over this. You’d have done the same.”

“Maybe. My family means everything to me, so yeah, probably. But, Lizzy, if I’ve learned anything, it’s that at some point, you have to think of yourself.”

The words, softly spoken and utterly from the heart, further compromised her calm. “I think of myself plenty. Hello, medical school in the fall.”

“Before that. In the here and now. What do you do for yourself that makes you happy?”

Kissing you… “Okay, so I’ve been busy. Look, you’re one to talk. You don’t do anything for yourself, either.”

“I’m on leave. I plan on doing plenty for myself.”

The look accompanying that sentence singed her nerve endings and had her nipples hardening. “I’m not having this conversation,” she said.

“Just one more thing then.”

“No.”

He slid a hand up her back, gently curving his fingers around the nape of her neck to tilt her head to his. “I like that you were stubborn enough to make your love of medicine work for you, even when becoming a doctor didn’t work out back then. Now make something else work for you, as well. Something besides work.”

“And I suppose by something, you mean you. ”

A ghost of a smile curved his mouth. “Well, I am standing right here.”

“And leaving, soon enough.”

His eyes never left hers. “Yeah. But what if I wasn’t?”

She stared at him, her heart kicking hard. “Then I am. Leaving. Besides, you’re not looking for a relationship.”

“I wasn’t, no. Things change. Life’s too short.”

Her heart skipped an entire beat. “We’d drive each other insane within a few dates, Jason.”

“Chicken.”

Lizzy let out a breath and went into the bathroom. Locking the door, she thunked her head against it. Lord, was she out of her element when it came to him. Pushing away from the door, she turned on the shower. There was no hot water, but even a cold one had to help.

THE BATHROOM LOCK CLICKED loud into the silence, the message clear to Jason.

Do.

Not.

Disturb.

Got it. He collapsed in exhaustion on the couch and leaned his head back, letting his eyes close for a moment as he heard the shower go on in the bathroom.