A short while later the lights came on and Jedidiah returned. “Sorry about that.”
“My fault. I’m used to it so I forgot to tell you.” They finished cooking in companionable silence. Jedidiah didn’t babble. Sometimes just getting her to talk was a feat. He wondered why she was so close-mouthed. The most he’d heard her talk was when she was asking him questions about Bikers For Kids. Was she that reticent with everyone or just him? She’d explained why she’d been so hard to talk to at the wedding, but that was far from the only time he’d noticed the habit.
“Thanks, I’m starving,” she said, taking her plate to the table and digging in.
They’d just finished eating and carried their plates to the sink when the lights went off again, this time without their help. Seconds later they heard the warning sirens directing them to find shelter or shelter in place. That meant an actual tornado had either been sighted or had touched down nearby.
“Shit. Come on, I have a closet under the stairs.”
“You want me to get in a closet with you?”
“Would you rather get blown away by a tornado?”
“No.”
“Then come on.” He grabbed her hand and used his phone’s flashlight app to lead her to the closet. She hesitated for a moment but then went along with him, though he heard her grumbling.
He opened the door and let her go first. “I’ll be right back.” He ran to the office, grabbed his laptop and was back at the closet in about a minute. Sure, his laptop was backed up but that was no reason to leave it exposed to a possible tornado. Not when he could have it with him. There was a shelf where he kept an LED lantern, some water, and some snacks. He picked up the lantern and turned it on. “There should be a blanket somewhere that we can sit on.”
She turned to look at the junk crammed into the closet. He’d kept the front part open in case of tornadoes but the back of the closet was a disaster and it was slowly encroaching on the part he tried to keep free of junk. He began to look for the blanket. It should be close to the front. Now if only he could find it.
“Looks like you need help organizing this too. What in the world do you have in here?”
“A little of everything. Whatever I couldn’t decide where to store I put in here. I keep meaning to clean it out but—” he shrugged “—somehow I never find the time.”
She didn’t respond to that but her expression pretty much said what she thought.
“Success,” he said, discovering the blanket underneath some boxes. He spread it out and they both sat down.
“Don’t tornadoes usually happen in spring and early summer around here? I don’t remember many of them when I was a kid.”
“They do usually. But obviously they can happen at other times. Let me see what the weather is supposed to do. Get an idea of how long we’re going to be stuck here.” He pulled up his app and frowned. “They’ve extended the warning until nine thirty p.m.”
“It’s only eight thirty now. We’re supposed to stay in here for another hour?”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Not to me.” He could think of a lot of things he could do stuck in a closet with a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, she worked for him so that meant hands off. Besides, hadn’t he decided she was not his type?
Since when is a gorgeous, not to mention intelligent, woman not your type?
“What are you thinking?” she asked suspiciously.
“I was thinking we should take this time to get to know each other.”Also that I’d really like to kiss you, but I’m not going there.
“Why?”
“Because we work together?” God, she really was ridiculously hard to talk to sometimes. But he admitted that was one of the things that intrigued him since it made her so different from the women he knew.
She huffed out a sigh. “Okay, I get to ask you first.”
“Ask me anything,” he said.
“Really? Nothing’s off-limits?”
“I’m an open book.”
