He put everything away except the sippy cup, but he left the box on the table to show Isaac later. Then he poured out the hot chocolate, making certain to add plenty of cream to hers. He set the mugs down on the coffee table before handing over the sippy cup.
“Hope it’s not too hot.”
Isaac took it, sipping from it first. “It’s perfect, thanks, man.”
More wind slammed against the house. He winced. Damn, it was really going for it out there. Far worse than the storm when they’d arrived. The wind hadn’t been nearly this fierce. How many more trees were they going to find down tomorrow?
Shit. He was going to have to reschedule his patients because he had a feeling he wasn’t getting home by Tuesday. Seemed his four-day weekend had become much longer.
Isaac helped Caley take a few sips of hot chocolate. It seemed she was calming down. Her trembling had eased, and she was no longer making those little whimpering noises.
Thank God.
How was she going to react tomorrow when she realized they’d seen her when she was so vulnerable?
Upset. Maybe angry.
Another crash of thunder and the lights flickered out. Caley let out another loud cry.
“Shh, baby doll. You’re okay. I have you.”
“Shit. Power’s gone out entirely,” Archer said. He reached for his phone which had been sitting on the coffee table.
“I found some flashlights earlier, only one had batteries,” Isaac told him calmly. “I left it by the door, can you grab it?”
Archer stood and using his phone, he found the flashlight, turning it on. Isaac had grumbled earlier about her lack of preparedness. He added batteries to the ever-growing list of things she needed.
“Baby doll, do you have a generator?” Isaac asked.
“Y-yes, it’s in the shed. It h-hasn’t come on.”
“Should I go check it?” Archer asked.
“No!” she cried out.
He blinked at her in surprise.
“You can’t go out there. Don’t!”
Isaac shifted her around on his lap. “She’s right, man. You can’t go out there.”
“We’re going to go without power instead?”
“Nah, I’ll go look at it. I have some experience with generators, at least. You won’t know what you’re looking at. You come sit with her.”
“No! No!” she cried out again, clinging to Isaac. “You both have to stay here.”
More thunder. She wrapped herself around Isaac, who gave Archer a surprised look.
“Caley, I’m just going to check the generator and see if I can get it going. We only have one flashlight between three of us, plus the lights on our phones which will soon go dead. If I can get the generator going, at least we’ll have power.”
“No! It’s not safe. Don’t go!”
“I’ll be fine, baby doll. Come on, let Archer hold you for a bit.”
“No! No!”
“Caley, calm down.” Isaac put a firm note in his voice.