Sheltered by Hope Shyne
Genre: Christian Romance
A little background on this story. Most of it was penned in a spiral notebook during a power outage which lasted almost a week after storms ravaged our section of the country. We live waaay out in the middle of nowhere which is wonderful if you love walking around on the porch in your jammies in the early morning drinking coffee. Fields of wildflowers. Cottontails hopping through your front yard. And a sky so full of stars and unhindered by city lights you can pick out constellations all night long.
But when nature strikes and the power goes out, well, we're the last on the grid to come back. I'd just discovered Marta Perry books around that time, but I had none available to read. So I wrote. And Dakota and Evan and their quirky families were born!
Sheltered was originally titled With No Warning but as the editing phase came to a close, the title somehow changed to Sheltered, which seemed to suit it better. As we walk through the story in the next few weeks, I'd love to share the truth that's entwined with the fiction of this unique part of the country and the storm's effect on it during that time.
Blurb
When Dakota Winslow accepts a teaching position at a prestigious boarding school across the country, the last thing she expects is to seek shelter in a freezer, with a handsome stranger, while a tornado rips the roof from above her head.
She survives the twister, but in the days to come, will her heart survive the emotional twister of Evan Raines, her hot freezer mate, on that fateful day?
Excerpts from Chapter 1
A road sign showing her to be nearly at the end of her thirteen-hour route whipped by, and a brightly-lit convenience store sign came into view. The thought of a cool beverage trickling down her parched throat eased the pressure of her foot from the gas. Impulsively, she arced her car into the asphalt lot.
The drizzle was getting heavier as she slid the gear into park, and the rain was falling again in full force by the time the foggy plate-glass door swished shut behind her. Her searching gaze surveyed the store’s interior, locating the cooler at the rear of the store. She moved in that direction while mentally debating between a juice and a fountain soft drink. With a twist of her head and a road weary smile, she acknowledged the middle-aged clerk behind the register.
“Some nasty weather we’re having,” The man greeted while steadily stocking the cigarette rack above his head.
With an answering grimace, she moved her head in a nod. Before she could verbalize her agreement, the door flew open behind her with a loud whoosh. The newcomer turned back, fighting with the fury of the wind to yank the door closed behind him.
“Are you listening to the weather Bernie?” The man spoke when the door finally settled against its jamb. Wayward strands of moisture darkened hair dripped onto his shoulders, and his tanned face damply glistened. Unconsciously, her fingers went to her own hair, knowing her appearance must be in similar disarray.
“I have it on, but I’ve been in the storeroom,” the clerk’s answer sounded, as Dakota resumed her weave to the back wall. The lights flickered, and a peculiar sensation infiltrated every cell of her body. Nervously, she scanned the beverage labels, keeping her ears tuned to the conversation at the front of the store.
“…county road is completely flooded…bridge may wash away again…” The crackle of a scanner station struggling to hold its frequency joined their voices.
As she mentally settled on her drink choice, the odd sensation remained. A feeling of disembodiment crept over her when she saw, rather than felt, her hand on the chrome handle and the feeling only intensified during the next seconds.
“…been trying to get his livestock to higher ground…”
A low thunder like rumble gathered into an intense deep whistle, and the lights dimmed again. Every hair rose on her prickly skin.
“What the—” the clerk she now knew as Bernie exclaimed. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Back! To the back!” The two men were upon her with lightning speed. The drink she had no remembrance of extracting dropped from her hand with a clinking of glass onto the tile floor as the lights gave a final flicker and dimmed out altogether. Strong fingers clamped around her upper arm, roughly hauling her through the darkness, through the screeching loudness, and into a rear hall.
Ahead, she saw Bernie’s shadowy bulk wrenching open a metal door, and beyond it, they sought refuge. From what, she didn’t know. Bernie pulled the door closed behind them. The stranger released her arm, and her eyes struggled to focus, but there was only blackness. Ice-cold blackness. Her fingers touched a cold slab of a wall, and she plastered her hand to the reassuring structure in the empty, icy void. The sound had reached a wild crescendo, piercing her ears with an uncomfortable pressure.
There was only sound, horrible creaking, ripping, whistling sound, and she screamed to pray above it as the tornado rent its fury.
The pressure of a hand groped at her, clumsily settling on her shoulder, and she felt a solid, warm hulk beside her. Somewhere in the yonder, glass was breaking. Grinds, thunks, and every chaotic sound imaginable penetrated her aching eardrums.
“Get down!”
Her spine was against the wall as she melted into a crouching position, and the silent shroud on her left began to move. Through the chaos, she registered that he was holding his shed jacket like a tarp enclosing their heads. Long moments passed, and the fury seemed to die some. But, only for a moment.
Like an angry menacing monster who had paused in a punishing tirade to take a breath, the wind began to toss and rip with renewed vigor. The scream of sound and cold, terrifying dark pierced her senses.
With a bone-jarring rent that popped her eardrums, light suddenly brightened their tiny corner of hell. The coat ripped from the stranger’s fingers. Tiny marbles danced at her feet and began a stinging pelt on her exposed head and face.
“Keep your head down! Eyes closed!” More shouts of advice from beside her.
An eternity seemed to pass before the deafening roar of the wind let up, and the groaning movement of the building’s structure ceased. The hail slowed only after covering the floor like a white Berber carpet.
“Are you okay?” The words vibrating her eardrum were husky with concern. Mutely, she nodded, finding her tongue unable to form words of assurance. “Bernie?”
The prone storekeeper on her right side slowly stood. “Lord Almighty…,” was his answer. It was reverently devoid of any curse.
At his cue, she also straightened to her feet, and the handsome stranger gallantly took her arm as her shaky legs took a step. His grip was much gentler than five minutes earlier when he had dragged her into the shelter of the store’s cooler. The ice beneath her feet rolled and slipped, and she was glad for his support as they trailed Bernie to the door. From inside the cooler, she could see through the section that normally shelved the drinks into the bedlam of the dimly lit room on the other side, where only minutes before she had debated juices.
Beyond the metal door, what had once been a back hallway was now a back porch, yawning open to the rear area outside. With only a glance in that direction, Bernie turned right to the front retail area of the store. Groaning, he stood on the threshold. “Look at this place!”
Beyond him, she beheld nothing but chaos. The wreckage could only be likened to a giant trashcan emptied into a salvage yard. So much garbage, papers, and cans. So many boards, beams, and metal.
“Better keep out of there. It’s not safe.” The man let go of her arm, and his voice was quietly modulated with shock when he spoke in warning concern to Bernie.
Bernie instead moved to the doorway across from where they stood, and gingerly stepped over the threshold. Two strides took him to a desk, and kneeling beside it, he probed about the soggy papers. “I thought the phone might be here…”
The phone! Dakota stifled a hysterical giggle. Operator, could I get the number of the tornado that just ripped my store apart brick by brick? I want to give it a piece of my mind! And a little help cleaning up the mess would be appreciated!
“We should get out of here,” her unnamed rescuer spoke, interrupting her bizarre musings. Carefully, he led them through the gaping area of what had, less than a quarter of an hour ago, been a wall.
“I have a cell phone in my car.” Dakota offered, wanting to atone for her satirical thoughts. The ice pellets on the outside were quickly melting into the soggy ground, so their footing was surer.
“Your car, it is red?” This inquiry came from Bernie, and she quickly affirmed.
“Yes, it’s right out front.” As she spoke, her eyes were busy scanning the completely uprooted trees that lay fallen in the rear lot.
“No, it’s not…” Bernie’s friend intoned.
“Yes, it’s right―” Rounding the corner to the front of the store where she had parked proved needless, and her words tapered into a gape of astonishment.
The shiny red Lexus that she had been so pleased to purchase brand new a little over a year ago was wrapped like a bread twisty around the pole of the now non-existent neon sign that had lured her in from the highway. For a span of several seconds, she could only stare at the freakish sight in incredulous awe of nature’s strength. Unconsciously, she moved, following the two men down the sidewall of the building and to the front, darting looks of disbelief every few seconds to her impaled car.
Fiction and Reality
- I have a cousin who after living through a tornado when she was a child, was so terrified of them that when her hubby was stationed in a state in tornado alley, she refused to move until he convinced the shopkeeper up the road to allow her to seek shelter in the freezer of the shop during tornado warnings.
- During the tornado I was in in my young twenties, a car did actually become wrapped around a pole--just like a bread twisty. Nothing more awe inspiring than mother nature.
- I swear to you, it wasn't until after publishing I was looking at the name Evan Raines and the irony struck me!
The Book and where to get it
Sheltered by Hope Shyne is available in ebook form on Kindle Unlimited and soon to be in paperback!
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