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you made it home.”
    “Barely. I’ve never seen anything like it. Pieces of hail as big as my head. It was like a war movie and we were under attack. I saw some storm chasers right before the storm shifted. I never saw them after that. I don’t know if they made it. And the truck...” He motioned toward it, ducking his head. “There’s no way I’ll be able to salvage it. I didn’t think I’d get it back here.”
    “That’s okay, Ryan. You’re home and safe. Though I think you might need to have that looked at.”
    He touched his forehead again and wiped the blood on his pants. “Compliments of the windshield. I swear a hailstone the size of a cow came down and did that. But I’m fine. I’m sure the hospitals are packed with people who need help more than I do.”
    “At least let me clean it up and make sure there isn’t any glass in it. If it is still bleeding in a little bit, we’re going to the ER.”
    He followed her into the house, ducking past Ty’s room before he saw his dad that way. Grabbing some hydrogen peroxide and some cotton balls, she motioned toward the edge of the bed. Surprisingly, Ryan wasn’t putting up too much of a fight. Either he was too tired or he knew they needed to take care of the injury.
    Dabbing the cotton ball in the medicine, she gently ran it across the cut. Ryan cringed and closed his eyes, and the liquid foamed around it. She cleaned up the dried blood on his skin, and applied another round of peroxide, satisfied when the foam stopped.
    “I don’t see any glass, but we need to check it again after the swelling goes down. If the swelling goes down,” she corrected herself, cutting a piece of gauze that would fit perfectly over the wound. “Ty is gonna want to know what happened.”
    “And I’ll tell him. No sense in keeping it from him. There’s no way to hide the truck and he’s not stupid.”
    Cecilia sat beside him, holding his hand. “I was listening to the scanner. I was so worried when you stopped answering. I didn’t know what to do.”
    “I’d like to say I was perfectly safe. If I had been five seconds slower in turning around, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”
    She bit her bottom lip and looked into his eyes. “Was that the big one all the old timer’s said we were due for?”
    Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought I was pretty good about tracking these things, but then this happened and it makes me realize I still have a lot to learn about weather. I want to say this was just a strong pattern that cleared out the atmosphere and we’re good for a while, but now I’m going to second guess everything.” He stood up and pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it into the hamper. “I need to check in with the department. I hope everyone got back safely.”
    “Me too, Ryan.” His demeanor was unsettling. What exactly had he witnessed?
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    Ryan’s head throbbed and his shoulders ached. It was a little past midnight and insomnia had struck. Rolling on his side, he watched Cecilia as she slept, her breath shallow, her head buried in the pillow. Pulling the covers off, he padded to the bathroom, studying his reflection. The gauze was halfway off, and he peeled the rest of the tape back, tossing the soiled bandage in the trash.
    The cut was beginning to bruise, and it pounded with the quickening of his pulse. Maybe Cecilia was right – he probably should have it looked at. The bleeding had stopped, but it looked nasty.
    Grabbing a beer from the refrigerator, he stepped out on the back porch. It was chilly out, and he wished he would have grabbed a sweater. The air was damp and humid, but the sky was clear, revealing a bright blanket of stars. It was refreshing to see it. He loved intense weather and spring was his favorite season, but with the afternoon he had experienced, he would be happy if the rest of spring was calm and dry. He’d deal with a drought if it meant not having to deal with storms of