All the air drained from her lungs and her stomach knotted, stunned at the out-of-blue confession. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re a natural mother, and you deserve that opportunity.” He spun on a heel and stormed out the door, leaving her confused and hurt.
Chapter Sixteen
Evan sat in his car and slammed a fist against the steering wheel. He should have told Janie the truth before they ever started dating. But he’d done what was right. He couldn’t give her the baby she wanted.
She didn’t have to tell him—her eyes said everything. Janie was born to be a mother. Contentment exuded from her as she fed Ava and rocked her to sleep. She probably didn’t even realize the happy sighs she’d let out.
However, he could have handled the situation better. His emotions had taken over. Only a fool—or a real jerk—would think it didn’t matter.
Frustrated with himself and the impossibility of a long-term relationship with Janie, he backed out of her driveway. He braked at the stop sign on her cul-de-sac and reached for his phone. The least he could do was send her a text and say he was sorry and they’d talk later. Too late, he realized he hadn’t grabbed his phone off the charger. Neither had he eaten yet, but that didn’t matter.
Unable to face her yet, he decided to go home and swing by in the morning to collect his phone. By that time, he’d prepare a speech, confessing that what the doctors had told him and explain why they couldn’t be together. He’d tell her it was him, not her. In this case, it wasn’t a lame break-up excuse but a legitimate reason why they should go their separate ways.
Pressing his foot on the accelerator, he drove away from her house. Before he left the subdivision, a tornado warning blared over the radio waves. His chest tightened when he heard the direction of the spotted rotation. Unless it changed its path, the funnel would come straight for this neighborhood.
He made a split-second decision and jerked his car into the nearest driveway. He turned around and sped back to her house, his gaze constantly shifting to the pitch-black sky to the west, behind an eerie green he’d never seen.
Leaves swirled in the air, and he swerved to miss a trashcan blown in his path. Dime-sized hail pelted his car as he pulled back into Janie’s cul-de-sac. He’d think about potential damage later. His only concern right now was for Janie’s safety.
He shifted into park, and the wind caught his car door when he first opened it. Using both hands, he slammed it closed. Ran to Janie’s front door and knocked hard with his fists. He didn’t want to wake the baby, but what if Janie hadn’t heard the warning?
She didn’t answer. Maybe she hadn’t locked the door behind him. He twisted the knob, relieved when it turned and opened the door.
“Janie?” His shout echoed through the house. He spotted the empty playpen and moved further into the house. “Where are you?”
He grabbed his phone from the charger, only a priority for access to further alerts. An empty flower pot flying over the deck distracted for him a second. He ran to the office, frenetic in his search. She had to be in the house—he’d only been gone for a few minutes.
More than ever, he wished the houses along the coast had basements. Who cared if they flooded if they could save a life during a tornado. “Janie?”
“In the utility room,” she shouted.
Relief flooded him when he opened the door and saw her huddled in the corner with Ava clutched tightly to her chest. Her eyes showed fear, but her body language demonstrated a collected strength. He shut the door behind him and rushed to embrace her.
She wrapped an arm around him while one still held the baby. “You came back.”
“I heard the warning and had to.” Nothing could make him move away from her. In those moments of needing to reach her, he knew unequivocally that he loved her.
“Did you mean what you said?” Her voice trembled.
“I…I don’t know.” He didn’t want to mean it. “We have to talk, but not now. Let’s get through this.”
His cell phone beeped loudly, alerting him to the tornado warning, at the same time a voice spoke on a radio.Good, she has a weather radio and brought it in.He swallowed the fear which arose when he heard the tornado’s path was only two miles from River Mills subdivision.
Janie’s nails dug into his skin. “I’m afraid.”
“We’ll be safe. I didn’t survive enemy attacks just to die in a tornado.” A chill ran through his body.
A loud rumbling sounded from outside the house.
“It’s here.” Janie huddled in the corner closest to the center of the home. “I’ve always heard it sounds like a train.”
He knelt in front of her, hovering his body over her and the baby as added protection for them if the tornado struck the house. “Protect us, Lord, shield us with Your strength and might. Please lift this tornado from its path of destruction. In Your name, amen.”
Ava awoke when something crashed loudly against the house, and she started crying. Janie prayed under her breath, intermittently whispering soft, soothing sounds to her.
The barreling noise continued, and the power flickered several times before cutting off completely.
