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Josh didn’t give her a chance to answer. He hefted her overnight bag onto his shoulder and began threading his way through the packed corridor.
“What are you doing?” Tara jogged behind Josh. “I didn’t say I was coming.”
“Just following orders.” Josh looked back over his shoulder at her. “My dad left me in charge. He said I’m supposed to drive home and make sure I have you with me. Rumor has it that you don’t like storms.” He turned and looked at her with curiosity. “You can tell me that story as we drive. More bonding.” His smirk made her think he was just as annoyed with his father’s required trip as she was. Continuing deeper into the parking garage, he met up with a waiting valet; he paused and called out over his shoulder, “You coming?”
They stood in silence as they waited. Every few seconds, Tara caught sight of him glancing down at her, amused by something he didn’t care to voice. She wasn’t going to take the bait. If he wanted to talk, he could talk to himself. He seemed to like the sound of his own voice more than enough for the both of them. Tires squealed, and Tara turned in the direction of the sound. A vivid blue convertible pulled to a stop in front of them. “A convertible?”
“So, we’ll leave the top up.” With twinkling eyes, he smirked at her. “Like I said, I got the last car they had.” Josh didn’t blink at her criticism. He reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet. He pulled a twenty from the thick wad of cash and handed it to the man as he stepped from the car. “Thank you.”
The employee pocketed his cash with a smile. He hesitated before he took the keys out of the ignition. “You’re sure you want to drive in this?”
Josh ignored Tara’s faint shake of her head as he continued to take charge of the situation. “We’ll be fine. Thanks.” He took hold of the offered keys as he stepped around the car to open the door for Tara. When she stepped to the door, he blocked her path for a moment. “Listen, I’m not sure how we got off to such an interesting start, but we’re about to be in a very small space for a very long time.” His blue eyes looked earnestly into hers. “Can we call a truce until after we get home?” He offered her his hand.
Taking a deep breath, she clenched her eyes tightly. When she opened them, she found him still staring inquisitively at her. She reached out to take his hand. “Truce.”
• • •
Tara flipped down the visor overhead and pretended to look for something in her eye. The first time she tried that trick, Josh seemed fooled. Since she’d repeated that move at least ten times during the past four hours, Josh realized what she was doing. She was watching the ever-darkening sky behind them. Tara sat back in her seat and kicked at the wad of aluminum paper at her feet. At first, Josh’s idea to stop and pick up lunch before hitting the freeway had seemed like a waste of time. Now she was grateful for his suggestion since they’d been stuck in this traffic for double the time it should have taken for them to get to Jacksonville.
Who would have thought it possible? Josh Owens, voted Entertainment Monthly’s Sexiest Man on Television, seemed to have had a good idea. Tara couldn’t help being a little bit surprised. Most of the anchors she’d worked with in the past were little more than pretty faces who could read well. Josh could think on his feet.
A blast of wind buffeted the car. If they’d been going faster than five miles per hour, Josh likely would have lost control of the car. Even still, Tara’s stomach lurched. A wave of panic threatened to overwhelm her. She took a series of practiced calming breaths.
Driving away from Hurricane Lizzie’s path was a good idea — apparently, the entire Orlando metropolitan area thought so too. They’d all joined them on their trip to Jacksonville. For the past hour, the Might-E-Fine Doughnut shop had been just ahead of their car, exactly even with Tara’s seat, and now it appeared to be a few feet behind the convertible’s rear tires. The freeway was jammed so tightly with bumper-to-bumper traffic it appeared that they might be filming a movie about a coming apocalypse.
Staring back at the churning black clouds continuing their race north, Josh was forced to admit they might not be too far from the end of the world.
• • •
Tara sat fidgeting in her seat again. He’d long since given up trying to carry on a conversation. Once they’d pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, Tara caught a glimpse of the storm clouds, and she hadn’t said ten words in the hours they’d been on the freeway. He knew they’d called a truce, but he didn’t think that meant she wouldn’t talk at all.
“Do you think we should try to walk? It would have to be faster than this.” Josh gave a feeble attempt to lighten the mood. Tara didn’t even shake her head in response. “Tara?” The car rocked with a gust of wind. He chanced a glimpse at her out of the corner of his eyes, expecting her normal look of annoyance when she had to interact with him.
But as he studied her now, he realized she wasn’t angry. She was terrified.
She sat gripping the seatbelt so tightly that her knuckles were tinted white. Despite the air conditioner running at full blast, a faint sheen of sweat sparkled across her forehead.
“Hey.” Josh threw the car into park. “Tara.” He reached out and shook her shoulder. Yet another weather alert shrieked over the radio, and his reluctant passenger closed her eyes and struggled for breath. The puzzle pieces clicked into place. His dad hadn’t done Tara’s fear of storms justice. He half-expected her to fling the car door open and start running to get away from the clouds building behind them.
“It’s going to be okay. The storm’s still really far south of us.” Of course, with the speed they were traveling, it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Hurricane Lizzie has continued to surprise the weather service by continuing her path north. Residents in the following counties need to seek shelter immediately …
Josh had been watching the clouds — hoping the fact that they seemed to be following them was a figment of his imagination. Now the alert confirmed he wasn’t letting his mind play tricks on him. The first bands of gray-green clouds boiled overhead to emphasize the shrill peal of the weather alert’s repeated warning. He snapped the radio off before Tara stopped breathing completely and considered his options. They could sit here in this virtual parking lot and wait for Lizzie’s arrival, or he could test the convertible’s off-road abilities.
His decision made, he was about to be happy he bought the extra insurance for the rental. He put the car back into drive as pea-sized pellets of hail bounced off the front windows. Pulling onto the muddy shoulder, he fought the car’s desire to be back on the smooth pavement while he drove to the nearest exit. He’d seen a hotel not too far behind them. Now they just needed to find out if it had any rooms available.
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