Deadline (Sandra Brown)

I’m fine here.”
    “You’d be more comfortable.”
    “I’m snug as a bug, and I’ve got plenty of backup batteries.”
    A bolt of lightning cracked nearby. Dawson instinctively ducked. When he recovered, he noticed Bernie regarding him curiously. Embarrassed by his conditioned reaction to the boom, he said, “That one was close.”
    “You’d better get Amelia and the kids tucked inside.”
    “I can’t talk you into joining the party? There are more than enough bedrooms, and it could be a long night.”
    “Thank you. I appreciate the invitation, but I’m fine.”
    “At least agree to come over for breakfast.”
    Bernie smiled. “If you insist.”
    Dawson bade him good night and plunged back into the torrent. He couldn’t help but sling rain onto Amelia as he got into the car, but she seemed not to notice.
    “Is he all right?”
    “I think I woke him up. He seemed to be okay. He didn’t want to relocate.”
    “You explained why we were doing this?”
    He placed his hand over his heart. “I made a point of preserving your reputation.”
    “Thank you for checking on him.”
    “No problem.” The road was a morass, but they made it to the back door of his house without mishap. “Hold on, boys, let me help you up the steps. They could be slick.”
    He got out and opened the back door on the driver’s side. Taking a boy by each hand, he walked them quickly but cautiously up the three wooden steps, unlocked the back door, then ushered them inside. When he flipped the switch, the overhead light came on. He’d been keeping his fingers crossed that the generator did, in fact, take over during a power loss.
    “Wow!” Hunter exclaimed. “Look at that ship model.” It was displayed on the long table that divided the kitchen from the living area.
    “First, take off your shoes and leave them here by the back door so you don’t track up the floor. Then you can go look at the ship. But don’t touch. It doesn’t belong to me.”
    He went back out, intending to assist Amelia, but she’d already alighted. Protecting the armload of clothes she was carrying, she was picking her way around the deepest puddles. He went down the steps and took her elbow. “I was coming back for you. You should have waited.”
    “I’m okay.”
    As soon as she’d cleared the threshold of the back door, she pulled her arm free of his grasp. “I haven’t been in this house since the owners renovated it. It’s—”
    He stepped directly in front of her, blocking her view. “Are you going to flinch every time I come near you?”
    “I didn’t flinch.”
    “Hell you didn’t.”
    Her chin went up a fraction, but the trace of defiance was short-lived, and she dropped her gaze to somewhere in the vicinity of the second button of his shirt. “You’re smart enough to understand how awkward this is for me.”
    “Because of the near kiss.”
    He didn’t phrase it as a question, and she offered no reply, but only continued to stare straight ahead until the silence between them became strained. Finally she looked into his face again.
    “Your virtue is safe with me,” he said. “Okay?”
    She nodded.
    “Okay?” he repeated.
    Even though she nodded a second time, he felt that she wasn’t entirely convinced. He certainly wasn’t.
    *  *  *
     
    Hunter and Grant missed the awkward exchange because, as with everything having to do with Dawson, they were fascinated by “his” house.
    It was tastefully furnished and had amenities to recommend it, but it lacked the warmth and personality of hers, which had been purchased strictly for her family’s use and was never rented out. Over the years it had accumulated personal keepsakes, family photographs, the marks and scars of living that made a house a home.
    However, her sons didn’t seem to miss the hominess. They were enthralled, particularly by the matching set of bunk beds in the upstairs bedroom to which Dawson led them. “Each of you can have a top bunk.”
    “Be careful on those ladders,” Amelia cautioned as they started up the rungs.
    Grant said, “I wish this was our room all the time.”
    Hunter declared that he wished they could live there forever.
    Amelia smiled. “Well, before you get the bedcovers wet, come back down and change.”
    They climbed down and went to inspect the adjoining bathroom. “There’s a room right across the hall for you,” Dawson said.
    “Thanks, but I’ll sleep on one of the lower bunks.”
    He shot the beds a dubious