“Doesn’t your sister know where you are?”
“I’m not sure.” Remembering the choppy phone call, I added, “I think there’s a tree blocking the road the other way. I called her to let her know I was stuck. The connection was bad, but… I don’t know. I might have heard wrong.”
“Shit.” Ozrik pulled his phone from a zipped pocket of his rain jacket and punched a few buttons.
“Do you have service?”
“No. I didn’t grab one of our satellite phones.” He peered out the windshield. The storm raged. “We could walk down the road and meet up with them. How far away is the downed tree?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure that’s what she said or if it was this road at all.”
“Well, come on. Can’t be more than a mile or so to the next intersection.”
Was he serious?
A rumble of thunder traversed the land as Ozrik pressed a shoulder against the passenger door, trying to open it. The windhad picked up, and even shoving with his body weight, he only managed a few inches before it slammed closed.
“Well, that was embarrassing.” He gave a cheeky grin. “We’ll use your door.”
“The wind is gusting at nearly a hundred miles an hour, there’s fork lightning, massive flooding, and we’re in the middle of nowhere. Flat plains country nowhere.”
“Your point?”
“You want to walk in this?”
“How else are we getting out of here?”
“I…” Had no idea.
“What’s wrong, Windrow? Are you afraid to get wet?”
“I’m afraid to get electrocuted or struck down by flying debris.”
“And this from the man who wanted to play chicken with a tornado not a week ago.”
“I didn’t… There was no tornado.” Shame colored my cheeks, and I tucked my chin against my chest, staring at my hands. “That was different.”
“How?”
I opened my mouth to explain, but no words came out. The intensity of Ozrik’s gaze was too much. It stripped me bare, and the last thing I wanted was to feel naked around him. He already turned me inside out without trying, but I sure as heck couldn’t divulge personal feelings.
Besides, how could I explain spiritual turmoil to a guy like Ozrik? How could I describe the isolation and alienation I faced every day of my life because I didn’t know how to merge and blend with society? I didn’t know how to be the person God made me, no matter how hard I tried, but I couldn’t be anyone else.
Even Olivia wouldn’t understand. Dad wanted to, but I wasn’t brave enough to have that conversation yet.
Standing toe to toe with Mother Nature had been the closest I’d been to peace in a long time, and I knew how messed up that sounded.
Ozrik glanced in the back seat, and my skin prickled. “What are you doing?”
It wasn’t like he knew about those hidden pictures in my backpack, but they were there, within arm’s reach. He could find them, pull them out, and ask me why I had focused the camera on him rather than the storm. Why I printed and kept them.
But no, that was my active imagination torturing me. Ozrik didn’t know or care about photographs.
“Where’s your camera?” he asked.
“Under your feet.”
“Oh shit.” He checked the footwell and drew the case onto his lap. It was muddy and wet from his running shoes. “Why didn’t you say something?” He wiped smears of mud with the bottom of his jacket but only managed to grind the dirt into the fabric. “Do you have a towel or something in your backpack?”
