Out of the Storm Read Free

claimed to be withholding judgment on the “cad” determination.  Tobi had felt drawn to Lilly in a way she hadn’t really been able to explain, and the only reason she could come up with was because she’d lost her own mother when she’d been so young.  The excuse sounded weak even in her own mind, but it was the only reason she could come up with…at least it was the only one she was willing to accept.  Lilly had assured Tobi that her assessment of Kyle and Kent avoiding interviews was dead on and had promised to help her secure an appointment the following day.  Before Lilly had left the small magazine’s office, she’d given Tobi a long hug and then kissed her on the forehead saying, “They are going to be thrilled to finally find you.”
    Later that night Tobi had laid awake wondering at the woman’s strange words, but her musings had been cut short by a text message from Kent West giving her directions to Prairie Winds and asking her to arrive at precisely seven the next evening. Tobi hadn’t minded the fact she’d be giving up her Friday evening because she never really went out anyway.  It wasn’t like she had any disposable funds for entertainment, and quite frankly, her small apartment wasn’t in a neighborhood that was safe to be out and about in after dark.  What she hadn’t planned on was the fact she’d be facing a storm so fierce she’d been forced to pull over to the edge of the road because she hadn’t been able to see where she was going.
    Thank God she’d left her seat belt fastened because she had no sooner put her small car in park than a large truck had barreled past and barely clipped her back bumper, sending her ancient Toyota nose down into a deep ditch. The ditch was rapidly filling with water, so Tobi grabbed her things, wrapped them in a couple of plastic bags she found under her seat and climbed back up to the roadside. Amazingly, not one single person had stopped despite the fact she’d been standing right at the road’s edge.
    The next time she’d seen lights headed her way, she’d moved to the center of the road and had begun waving her arms wildly over her head. Just as the enormous black pickup had gotten close, a bolt of lightning hit in the field to her right and the flash had illuminated the startled expression of a man Tobi could only describe as movie star handsome. She’d only gotten a glimpse of his dark intensity before she’d found herself jumping to the side to keep from becoming his newly mounted hood ornament. By the time he’d managed to screech to a stop, she was hopping mad and stalking toward the large black pickup as fast as her short legs would carry her. She was only five foot two, but as she liked to remind those around her, what she lacked in size, she made up for in attitude.
    Tobi had almost reached his truck by the time he finally stepped out, “You almost ran over me. Holy smokes Batman you could have killed me with that monster-mobile of yours.  Damn, a drowned rat.  My whole life is spiraling out of control faster than a Kardashian marriage I tell ya. Shit, shit, double shit. My car is probably floating toward the lake and my stuff is in trash bags. Trash bags!   That’s a whole new level of the wrong side of the tracks, even for me.  I’m so wet I’m pretty sure I won’t be dry for a month of Sundays, hell’s fire I’ll probably mold.  And you are freaking huge and probably some serial killer on the top of some most wanted list.  I’ll end up on the evening news and my brother will never even know what happened to me because he refuses watch the damned news. My crazy ass neighbors will pick apart my apartment before the broadcast is even over and I’ll be a footnote on some unsolved mysteries show a few years from now. And I still don’t know what Lilly West meant by finding me. Damnation this sucks big green donkey dicks I’m telling ya for sure.” When she finally came up for air and realized the tall hunk in front