Lakeside

When It Rains

Storms at the lake during the summer can go one of several ways: short-lived things that are light, over in a blink, and forgotten before the day is out – harder, more intense storms that sometimes bring crashes of thunder and lightening sending everyone scattering for shelter, but still roll on through without doing too much damage – or the wild things that threaten to snap trees and assail the unwary with hail. Only the foolish go out during the latter two. Only the foolish do things like perform house calls rather than batten down the hatches and wait till the worst is over. Only the foolish glance at the weather report before heading out and upon seeing that one such heavy storm is inbound still decide to go out on the water.

"Only the foolish..." Tom mutters under his breath as he turns into Johnson cove, the fast approaching storm already altering the feel of the air. The skies overhead turned grey the evening before, not allowing the sun to peek through as it set and holding fast today too. The water's already choppy, too, like it knew the storm was approaching and is already whipping itself up in excitement.

He could have told her no. Told her she'd have to wait till after this dervish ran its course. Could have told her to look out her window at those dense dark clouds and wait till she could see clear skies again. But he didn't. Ryan called asking if he could come look at her router and see why her WIFI was spotty and he said he'd be right over. She'd needed it for something for work, she'd said. Even hearing that word, the inevitable thing that would take her away from the lake – from him – had caused an uncomfortable weight to land in his stomach.

Storm is mucking things up, is the answer. Probably. But this way he can put eyes on just to make sure, and be able to warn her about staying away from the windows just in case the wind catches a branch or something. And to maybe listen to the radio, have it as white noise, just in case the weather service issues an alert and requests that residents seek out a room without windows, seek shelter until the storm passes.

And help her bring in the deck chairs so they don't blow around the porch. She's clearly taking the advice of the welcome packet, already having tipped all but one of the chairs off their hind legs to lean them against the rail. That won't do much if the winds are as bad as they're saying.

"Tom!"

His name interrupts his thoughts and he glances away from the task of docking for a second to find that Ryan has appeared on the porch just outside the door, one hand still on the doorknob. Something else comes out of her mouth but the wind and the motor keep it from reaching his ears. He shakes his head, pointing to his ear before giving her a one-handed shrug, and wordlessly asking for a moment before she repeats herself.

She's barefoot, in cutoff jean shorts and a loose terrycloth shirt, halfway down to meet him before he's able to hop off Daisy Mae. "Oh. I'm sorry. I tried to call back, but Tori said you'd already left. I – I figured it out. Why the file wouldn't download."

He smiles, not for the first time glad his sister hadn't been able to relay a message to him. Sidestepping the issue of work, her work at least, Tom nods. "Yea? That's ah-um, glad to hear it. But still good I came." He tips his head up towards the house, "I'll help you get those indoors."

The wind catches her hair, whipping it around as it ripples the light pink fabric of her shirt. "Think it'll be that bad? The storm?"

So she isn't as clueless about the weather as most that come up here to visit. He stomps down on the thought as soon as it pops into his head. Visiting means leaving, and right now he needs to be focused on getting those chairs into storage, so he can get back across the water.

He nods and motions up the stairs for her to lead the way back up towards the house. "It just may be," he answers, trying to keep the act gentlemanly as he follows but failing and watching the way the muscles of her legs flex as she ascends the stairs. "Better to already have things stowed than to have to try to chase something down when you should be staying inside."