Page 73 of Courting Danger

Chapter 20

Roan

The moment the rain started pelting the grocery store window, Roan hurried to find Danger, locating him at the deli, where he was busy selecting cuts of meat. He and the butcher were both staring up the aisle toward the front of the store, shocked expressions on their faces.

“What the fuck?” Danger growled, yanking his phone from his pocket.

Roan stopped behind him, silent until Danger finished tapping away on his phone.

“We’re hunkering down here until it blows over,” Danger declared, his phone blipping a few seconds later.

He checked it before shoving it back in his pocket.

“I just let Pope know what was going on. He sent a thumbs-up emoji and said he was in the process of texting to tell us to do just that,” Danger said.

“Should we put back anything that might spoil?” Roan asked.

“Yeah, that would probably be a good idea,” Danger said before turning to address the butcher. “Are you good to hold that order until the rain lets up?”

“Absolutely. I’ll finish cutting and packaging it for you and have it waiting in the cooler,” the butcher replied. “Actually, hang on; let me grab a few brown paper sacks, and we can bag your perishables and put them with your meat.”

“Even better,” Danger replied, already beginning to dig in his cart to remove everything that needed to be refrigerated, so Roan did the same.

Because they’d been expecting a power outage, they had tried to get more staples anyway, so the butcher only had to fill a single sack for them, which he wrote Danger’s name on, before carrying it into the cooler.

“I’ve got a place back here where we can stash your carts,” the butcher offered when he returned.

“Let’s combine them, in case others could use the space too,” Danger suggested and began to transfer the items from his into Roan’s, since he had fewer things.

“If there’s space back there for all of this, could you please tuck it away from me?” A young woman said, with a toddler on her hip, binkie in the little girl’s mouth.

The child’s eyes widened when thunder boomed outside, and she ducked her head to bury her face against her mother’s neck, clinging tighter.

“Absolutely,” the butcher said, coming around from behind the counter to get it from her. “You’re Tessa, right? Kenny Martin’s daughter?”

“Yes, I am,” she replied.

“I thought so; you look just like your mama,” he replied as he wrote her name on a label and attached it to a cart that was full to the point of almost spilling over.

He wheeled it away for her, then returned for Roan’s cart, as the girl began to whimper and squirm when another boom rattled the building. Tessa adjusted her hold and rubbed the little one’s back, hoping to calm her.

Out of the corner of his eye, Roan spotted an endcap with a display of small stuffed animals with big, sparkly eyes. One of them, a bright pink poodle with glitter streaks woven through its fur, seemed like exactly the thing a little girl might like, so he hurried over and snagged it, bringing it back to the butcher’s counter.

“Is it okay if I give this to her?” Roan asked the butcher. “I’ll pay for it if you’ll put the tag with our things.”

His fingers closed around the blue oval tag, poised to pull it off the moment he was given permission.

“No harm at all in that,” the butcher replied.

Roan yanked it free and made sure he got the other part of the plastic piece untangled from its fur before he handed it to Tessa, who beamed at him, before stroking it against her girl’s arm to get her attention. Sure enough, she peeked out, curiosity pushing some of the fear from her eyes when she saw the plushie her mother held. Squealing, she made grabby hands, hugging it and giggling the moment it was in her possession.

“Thank you,” Tessa said, letting out a heavy sigh. “I don’t normally bring her to the grocery store since it can already be overwhelming, but with the storm rolling in, I thought I’d take the chance to run out and get diapers and other supplies in case my husband was stuck at work and couldn’t come home on time. He’s one of the nurses at the assisted living facility, so if relief can’t make it in, he won’t be able to leave.”

“You’re welcome,” Roan replied.

“I’ve got a few buddies who work there too,” Danger said. “One is a nurse, and the other works in the kitchen. They’ll bestuck too, but at least the folks living there will have everything they need to ride out the storm.”

“Think we’re pretty stuck ourselves,” the butcher admitted. “I was supposed to get off in fifteen minutes, but I don’t see that happening now. Let me find my manager. We had a bunch of those quad folding chairs come in too late for us to put out in time for the car show, so they’re sitting in the back. I don’t think he’ll have a problem with us setting them up so folks will have a place to sit while they wait this mess out.”