“Get the spider! You have to get the spider!” I screeched.
“Was it you? Were you feeding the damn dog?”
But the spider was getting bigger and bigger, and my panic was quickly turning into something more dangerous. I was going to pass out.
“Spider. Spider!” I screamed, sure I wasn’t going to make it more than thirty seconds longer. A minute tops, if I was really lucky.
“Why the hell have you been feeding that dog? It’s not mine!” he shouted.
I backed up a scant inch, but then remembered the beady eyes at the other end. Had they come closer? I was pretty sure they had. It was creeping up on me, waiting for me to make my move, and then it would attack. I’d never see the light of day again.
I could barely hear anything else over the roaring of my own thoughts. I vaguely heard Tennessee still talking, but whatever he was saying was lost on me.
“Josie!”
The shouting of my name finally dragged my attention back to the man kneeling in front of the opening.
“If you don’t get your ass out from under my porch?—”
“There’s a spider. A huge spider!” I shouted. “Can’t you see it? I’m trapped! I’m never getting out of here!”
“You’re not trapped. You just have to move toward me.”
“Toward the spider, you mean. And then it’ll crawl under my clothes and into my hair. I’ll have to shave my head and look like a man for the next year. Everyone will start calling me Joe instead of Josie!”
“You’re panicking,” he said, his voice cool as a cucumber.
“You think? Of course, I’m panicking! A spider is trying to attack me.”
“I hate to point this out, but you’re the one who crawled under my porch.”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Maverick. That was Maverick. I was saved. “Help! Maverick, you have to save me! I’m being attacked by spiders!”
“She’s not being attacked.”
“Why is she under your porch?”
“Because she’s Josie.”
I could only make out who was talking by the sounds of their voices, but the condescension in Tennessee’s voice was loud and clear.
“Maverick, there’s something under here that really wants to eat me!”
“Then crawl out,” he said, bending over so I could finally see his face.
“Get a broom! No, a long stick!”
“Why a stick?”
“Because if you use a broom, you’ll have to throw it out!” I shouted, my heart thumping wildly.
God, I couldn’t take another second of this. Rustling drew my attention and I screamed, letting out the girliest, loudest sound that ever left my lips. But what else was I to do when something was crawling toward me?
“Josie, look at me!” Tennessee commanded.
My head snapped to the sound of his rough voice. I tried my best to focus on him when I really wanted to turn and see what was crawling toward me.
