Page 101 of Two-Step
The question—with all its honesty and acknowledgement—hits me with unexpected force.
Am I okay?
Honestly, no. Today was hard. And even without that, my answer would still beno.Iris has awoken something inside me, and being this close to her isn’t making it easier. So, no, I’m not okay. But I can do a better job of hiding it to make this easier for her.
“Sorry. I’ve just had a shitty day.” Truth. “Family stuff.”
A pretty frown creases her brow. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “I don’t really want to talk about it right now.” That’s also true.
Iris nods, accepting this. “You need a distraction. What should we talk about?” Then her hazel eyes brighten. “We could talk about the weather. I hear we’re going to get a hurricane.”
The eagerness in her voice makes me laugh. “We’re not going to get a hurricane. It’s just a tropical depression.”
Her eyes widen. “No. It’s a storm now.”
“She’s right,” Ramon says. I look over to see him wearing a frown of concern. “Tropical Storm Addie. They’re predicting a hurricane making landfall somewhere along the Gulf Coast sometime Saturday.”
“The Weather Channel said somewhere between Galveston and Mobile,” Sally adds, sending Iris a look of warning. She and Ramon have stopped dancing, but she still holds onto him. “You shouldn’t sound so excited, Iris. It could be serious.”
Iris trips. I steady her. Then she plants her feet and looks to Ramon, eyes wide with remorse. “Ray, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m so sorry.”
My gaze snaps between Iris and her two friends. She looks horrified. Ramon’s expression is edgy, and Sally watches him with compassion. And then it hits me. Ramon is from Puerto Rico.
He grips the back of his neck. “I know you didn’t, Iris. It’s okay.”
“Were you there?” I ask. “For Hurricane Maria?” The Category 5 storm in 2017 nearly wiped Puerto Rico off the map.
Ramon shakes his head, but his eyes are clearly pained. “No, but my sister and brother-in-law lost their home, and my parents’ house took serious damage. I went back to help as soon as I could get a flight—” He shakes his head with a haunted expression. “You wouldn’t believe how fucked up everything was.”
I would believe it. But I don’t tell him that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans when I was twelve, and Mom’s cousin and her two kids evacuated and wound up living with us for two months. I saw what was left of the city three weeks after the storm when they started letting people back in.Noncand I went to help our cousins clean up. But there’s no such thing asclean upwhen your house has taken on nine feet of water. All you can do is tear down and build back up.
“How are they doing now?” I ask.
Ramon shrugs. “Better, but they still aren’t back to normal. Small businesses and rural areas take a long time to come back. I visit twice a year. Progress is happening, but it’s slow.”
I think about Camelia Court’s severe weather flier in my back pocket. If we ever have to face down a Cat 5 storm, a lot of that planning and preparedness wouldn’t even matter. I give a shudder at the thought.
I’ll have to keep an eye on the weather. Even with a Category 1 storm, I don’t want to be in my tiny house in the middle of a floodplain. Not a good idea.Noncwill let me crash here. That’s not an issue.
But I glance down at Iris. If a storm really is headed our way, she needs to be prepared—for an inconvenience if nothing else.
“Has the studio said anything about their contingency plans if a storm hits?”
She blinks up at me like I’ve startled her out of a daydream. And not a very nice one. I recognize her expression. She’s still upset with herself for something as innocent as getting excited over a hurricane—and possibly offending Ramon. She looks the same way she did the nightNoncbroke his elbow. And I know she beat herself up for that for days.
She’s so hard on herself. About everything.
I watch as Iris focuses on my question. She frowns. “Nothing yet. Jonathan said they’d let us know in the next day or so about any changes to the filming schedule.”
Iris doesn’t look concerned about that. Instead, her eyes cut to her friend. But one look at Ramon lets me know he’s just fine. Sally is consoling him plenty, stroking his hands and leaning in close to whisper into his ear.
Yeah, he’s fine. It’s Iris I’m worried about.
“Let it go,” I whisper, taking a lesson from Sally and leaning in just a little. I silently cue her to resume our dance, and she follows my lead, but her gaze flits up to mine. Her innocent eyes are so full of regret.
“You didn’t mean anything by it.”
