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  She took another swallow of tea. “If it wasn’t for Brad and Ellis, Jackson would have probably killed us both. Brad saved us, but Ellis is the one who finished Jackson off. They showed up just in time.”

  “I’m sorry,” John said.

  He didn’t know what else to say.

  She shrugged. “Not your fault. The attack sort of dredged up a few things, I guess. I’m not as over as much of it as I thought I was.” She laughed again, but it sounded less pained. “Sorry about the beans.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Oscar said. “We get it.”

  John nodded.

  “I can do any other kind of beans,” she said, John spotting her forced humor in an attempt to put them at ease. “Dried or canned. But…” She shrugged. “Sorry.”

  “Green beans?” Oscar asked.

  She smiled even as she brushed at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I fucking love green beans.”

  “I’m sorry about your friend Julie,” John said. “I wish I’d met her. She sounds like she was a remarkable woman.”

  “She was. She was like a sister to me. I didn’t know her as long as Mandaline did, and I wasn’t as close to her as Mandaline was, but she was the only family I really had here. I spent a lot of years looking over my shoulder and being careful not to let anyone know who I was or what had happened to me. The only other guy I was in a relationship with, I walked away from him because I was terrified someone might have figured out who and where I was and he would get hurt.”

  “So what’s your real name?” Oscar asked.

  She smiled. “Sachi is my real name.” She waved her hand at them, indicating she was joking. “Miki. Miki Bloomfeld. My dad still calls me Miki. He never could call me Sachi when we were together.”

  “How did you pick the name Sachi?”

  “It was my mom’s name. I knew at the time it might be stupid, because it’s not like there’s a lot of Japanese Jews in Idaho, either. Duh. But I wanted to honor her. Wolowitz was Dad’s mom’s maiden name.” She let out a sad sigh that echoed to the bottom of his soul. “So there you have the rest of the story.”

  Never before had John so badly wanted to pull someone into his arms and soothe their heartache away the way he wanted to with her.

  “Sachi’s a beautiful name,” Oscar said.

  A sad smile crossed her face. “My mom was a beautiful woman.”

  * * * *

  Oscar felt guilty as hell that he’d triggered Sachi, but fortunately, now that she’d gotten the story out of her system, she seemed to look a little better.

  She even offered to form the hamburger patties for them.

  He wanted to hug her, wanted to hold her, wanted to heal her.

  No, he and John weren’t broken when compared to her, but she was a thousand times stronger than even the two of them put together, to come through what she had and rebuilt her life so completely.

  Made him feel like an ass for whining about being single and losing custody of his new HDTV to Karen when she locked him out two weeks after he’d bought it.

  As she made the burgers, she glanced at them occasionally. “So. Now that you’ve heard all that, does it freak you the hell out? Honestly.”

  Oscar didn’t know what John felt, but he knew what he felt. “I can’t say I know what you’ve been through or how you feel. That would be total bullshit on my part. But I know that I really like you a lot, and I’m willing to go slow, as slow as you want, to see what might happen.”

  “Me, too,” John said. “Slow is fine with me.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Once Sachi got through her initial fear that she might throw up, telling them the story wasn’t as bad as she thought it might be. Sort of like ripping a foot-long strip of duct tape off her arm, taking the hair with it. The faster it was done, the faster the pain would be over.

  Or like ripping an adhesive bandage off a wound that still needed a little debridement.

  A wound that needed the healing kiss of air to allow it to fully finish mending itself.

  “I can go so slow it feels like we’re going in reverse,” Oscar said.

  Sachi and John stared at him.

  “What?” Oscar asked.

  John shook his head. “Seriously? Dude, it’s a good thing she’s already into us, or you’d run her off.”

  Sachi laughed, glad to have that after the emotional gutting of telling her story. “It’s okay. I’m glad you guys are as nervous as I am. It’s a relief, actually.”

  “I’m so nervous,” Oscar started, “that I could totally pis—”

  “Stop.” John leveled his finger at him. “Just, please stop talking and let the lady do the talking before she changes her mind.”

  He sulked. “Fine.” He shot her a wink.

  She wanted to burst out laughing with joy. They were so much alike, and yet so different in some ways. The good ways across the board, apparently.

  She reached out and palmed Oscar’s cheek. “Don’t try so hard,” she gently assured him. “I promise I’m not going anywhere as long as you guys are willing to put up with me.”

  His expression softened and he turned his face to kiss her palm. “Thanks for trusting us.”

  Yes, she was surprised to realize that, despite her nerves, she did trust them.

  Outside the storm raged, surprising even Sachi, who’d long ago grown used to the temperamental summer weather of her adopted home state. They got the burgers grilled and the green beans heated up. Settling on the couch with Oscar, with John in the chair, they had finished eating and were watching The Big Bang Theory on TV when the power went out.

  “Crap,” John muttered. His cell phone lit up as he activated the flashlight function. Setting his paper plate on the coffee table, he went over to the kitchen, where he dug a battery-operated lantern from under the sink.

  He turned his phone off when the larger light illuminated the room. He carried it over and set it on the coffee table. “There.”

  The power came back on.

  The consternated look on John’s face made Sachi bust out laughing again. “If you put the lantern away, you know the power will go out again, right?” Outside, the wind howled. At this rate, Sachi knew she might be stuck there for a few hours. Fortunately these kinds of storms usually passed through very quickly.

  Not like she objected to the company.

  His consternation turned into a smile. “You’re right.” He switched it off and sat down again while they waited for the cable box to reboot itself.

  “Actually, while we’re enduring our forced TV break, I’m going to hit the little girl’s room, if you don’t mind.” She carried her plate over to the counter and left it there.

  “Sure, we just have the one.” Oscar pointed at the bathroom door, which formed the center of the tiny hallway between the bedroom and bathroom doors, right off the living room.

  “Thanks.”

  As she closed the door behind her and flipped on the light, she was pleased to see it, too, looked clean. No worse than her own bathroom.

  Thank the Goddess they aren’t pigs.

  The bathroom didn’t have a window. Based on the layout, she suspected the other apartment butted against this one. As she sat there, the lights went out again.

  She was just finishing up and about to fumble in the dark for the sink when the wind’s howl turned into a scream. From somewhere outside, an enormous groaning crack split through the other noises. The lights blinked on just long enough for her to look up and see part of the ceiling and roof beginning to collapse when the lights went off again, leaving her in total darkness with debris raining down on her head and the sound of the wind picking up even more.

  She screamed.

  * * * *

  Oscar was on his way to the counter himself when he and John heard the noise.

  The lights went off and Oscar missed the counter by inches, accidentally dropping his plate on the floor.

  “Dammit.”

  Working by feel, he knelt to pick i
t up, glad he hadn’t let go of his glass, too.

  The lights flashed back on, then off again as the freight-train roar filled the apartment.

  “Shit!” John yelled.

  As they heard what sounded like the roof ripping off, Sachi let out a scream from the bathroom.

  The small sliding glass door next to the dining room blew in, or rather out, being sucked from its frame by the gust of wind.

  John got his hand on the lantern and switched it on as the howl began receding. “Sachi!” he screamed as he grabbed it and ran for the hall.

  Oscar was right on his heels. “You all right?”

  She was still screaming, so she couldn’t be hurt too badly, he hoped. She started pounding on the bathroom door. When the men tried to open it, the knob turned, but the door wouldn’t budge.

  “Pull on the knob!” John yelled to her.

  “Oh, like I hadn’t thought of that!” she screamed in reply.

  “Stand back,” Oscar yelled, taking a couple of steps back as he pushed John out of the way. He tried for a running start and slammed his shoulder into the door, where it didn’t budge an inch.

  John shoved the lantern at him. “I have a sledge in my work van.” Before Oscar could argue with him, John ran out the opening where the slider used to be.

  “It’s okay,” Oscar said. “We’re going to get you out. What happened?”

  “It looks like part of the roof’s gone. I can see a tree limb. Oh, my Goddess, you’d better check on your neighbor!”

  “We need to get you out first.”

  “I’m okay, I’m not hurt. Seriously, go check on them. It looks like a tree fell. A big oak. And I think I hear someone yelling over there. Go help them first. I’ve got my phone. I’ll call 911.”

  His heart chilling, he realized there was a huge oak tree on the back side of the duplex, on their neighbor’s side.

  “Stay there. I’ll be right back.”

  It sounded like she laughed. “Not like I’m not going anywhere.”

  He headed for the doorway and saw John running back in the rain from his van. “We need to check next door,” Oscar told him. “Sachi said she’ll wait. She’s not hurt.”

  John had started to argue when they turned and looked. Sure enough, the huge oak had tipped over.

  Racing through their apartment and out their front door, they ran to the neighbor’s apartment and banged on the door. It looked like part of the roof was missing on the unit next door.

  They heard someone yelling from inside. Fortunately, the door was unlocked and they rushed inside to find most of the enormous tree filling the apartment.

  The brief thought that their own bedrooms were probably damaged flitted through Oscar’s mind before he dove through the branches to find their neighbor. He knew the elderly man’s name was Keith, but beyond that, he didn’t know much else about him.

  “Are you all right?” John yelled.

  “I’m trapped in my bedroom. One on the right.”

  They pushed their way through, the sledge hammer coming in handy as John used it to bash a hole in the hollow-core door. The man was pinned on his bed by a dresser, which had been toppled by a section of the ceiling caving in.

  “Are you hurt?” Oscar asked as he set the lantern down and with John tried to help get the dresser off him.

  “I’m not tickled, boys. I think my leg’s broke, but I can’t get out.”

  They heard sirens arriving as they managed to get the dresser lifted enough they could shove the bed farther against the opposite wall, giving them enough room to free the man’s leg. John grabbed the sledge and busted out the bedroom window, which was only a little higher than the bed.

  John jumped out and disappeared while Oscar stayed with the injured man. A few minutes later, he returned with firemen, who helped Oscar climb out so they could get into the window with a stretcher.

  Oscar grabbed the lantern and headed back into their apartment with John on his heels. “Sachi?” he called out.

  “I’m still here,” she said.

  He wanted to laugh that her snark sounded intact.

  “Get back as far as you can,” John said as he hefted the sledge hammer.

  “Roger roger. Go for it.”

  He busted out the bottom of the door, making a large enough hole she could crawl out of. As they helped her, she hugged John, then Oscar, kissing them both on the lips.

  She froze, staring at them. “Um, thanks.”

  The nodded.

  “Your neighbor okay?”

  “Leg’s hurt, but he said that was it.”

  “Okay.” She nodded. “Um, you’d better look at your rooms.”

  They did. Sure enough, the roof was damaged in both rooms, more so on John’s side, which was closer to the tree.

  “Wow. You guys can’t stay here tonight.”

  A deputy stepped into the open doorway and flashed his light around. “Are you all okay?”

  “We’re fine,” John said. “We helped our neighbor. Is he going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, they said he will be. We’ve got Red Cross on the way, too. Nearly every building’s damaged.”

  “Dammit.” John scrubbed his face with his hands. “This sucks.”

  “Call Aunt Tammy,” Oscar suggested.

  “Good idea.”

  Sachi pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Y’all will need help getting your stuff out. Let me make a few calls.”

  Fortunately, no one sustained any more serious injuries than their neighbor. It was either a tornado or a straight-line wind that took the tree out and damaged the roofs, as best the authorities could tell. And less than an hour later, Sachi’s calls had produced Brad and Ellis, as well as their friend, Grover, and his sons and sons-in-law, everyone with vehicles, large garbage bags, storage bins, and anything else they could grab, to help the men salvage and move their stuff.

  Aunt Tammy was waiting with the front lights on and her garage door open and waiting when they brought the first load there a little after ten that night. By midnight, the men’s apartment had been emptied of everything they could salvage, and the contents either transferred over to Tammy Evans’ house, or to Grover’s storage shed, where at least it’d be safe and dry until the men could retrieve it.

  As everyone left, Sachi hung back to speak to the men. “Looks like y’all know how to show a girl a helluva first date.” She smiled.

  They both hugged her, Oscar still trying to process the wild ride they’d gone through. “I’m so glad you’re not hurt,” he whispered in her hair.

  “Me, too,” John echoed.

  “Yeah, well, I’m tough. Hard to kill.” She smiled at them as they released her. “Wiry.” She adopted a fake accent. “I yam from New Joisey, after awl.”

  * * * *

  This wasn’t exactly how Sachi had envisioned their dinner together. But she was glad she’d been there, able to call friends into action to help the men.

  “I’m sorry this night was a disaster,” John said. “Literally.”

  “No harm, no foul. Hey, no one was shooting at me, so I call that a good night.” She grinned, enjoying the way they smiled.

  The truth was, she’d probably go home and take a hot shower and have a beer or five to chill out. Her adrenaline spike had left her shaky and weak now that the initial emergency was over with.

  “There’s supposed to be more storms tomorrow night,” she said. “So I suspect we’ll end up canceling.”

  The men nodded. “Yeah,” John said. “It’s okay.”

  “But we’ll reschedule.” She stepped in, staring up at John. “Look. Saturday morning, I have a skeet lesson at eight. But we’ll be done by nine. Come over to the club and let me take you shooting. I’m sure after all of this you both will need a little chill-out time. So even if we can’t get together tomorrow night, we’ll have that. And Saturday night, we have one of our coven get-togethers at the store. It’s just a potluck dinner and we shoot the shit. Would you two like to go with me? Meet eve
ryone?”

  Oscar smiled. “We’d love to.”

  “Absolutely,” John said.

  “To skeet, or coven?”

  “Both,” the men parroted.

  She laughed. “Okay. Good.”

  Standing on tiptoe, she kissed them both on the cheek, squeezing their hands. “We’ll take our time. Hopefully a hurricane won’t hit on Saturday.”

  They nodded, still smiling.

  Their auras looked relaxed despite what they’d gone through. She didn’t think it was too self-aggrandizing to acknowledge that their auras had looked shaken, unsettled all evening, until she solidified plans with them.

  “Maybe Sunday I can help you go through your stuff at Grover’s. Get it sorted or repacked or whatever. And you can come over to my house for dinner with me and my dad.”

  “We’d like that,” John said.

  “Good. Okay. Settled.” She squeezed their hands again, wishing she didn’t have to let go.

  “Hey, text us when you get home, okay?” Oscar asked. “Let us know you’re all right.”

  “Both of us,” John added.

  They were the good kind of overprotective. She liked that. “Will do.”

  It also put her at ease to know that they were on the same page. That the men were willing to give her the time she’d need, and were willing to try this, together, the three of them. Those had been her biggest hurdles.

  The rest should be easy, right?

  When she finally pried herself away from them and got in her car, she drove home full of second thoughts.

  “No, don’t do that to yourself,” she said out loud in the car, her fingers tightening around the steering wheel. “You see their auras. You know they’re being honest. Don’t sabotage this.”

  Her dad’s SUV was parked in the driveway when she pulled in.