Luis sent him a smile and said, “Thank you. I don't dress this way normally. This is actually the first time I've ever dressed like this. We thought we were alone.” He'd said it already, but it deserved repeating.
“Hey, where's the bathroom?” Beth Anne said. She had a high, nasal voice. She tended to shout when she spoke, and Luis noticed she began her almost all her sentences with “hey.”
Luis pointed to the bedroom and said, “It's in there.” Then he slipped his arms into the jacket around his shoulders and started to wonder why Jase hadn't returned yet.
Beth Anne rolled her eyes and grabbed Blaze's arm. As they headed toward the bathroom, Beth Anne said, “What a fucking shit hole.” On her way into the bedroom, she sent Matthias a glare. Evidently, she wasn't too thrilled with the cabin either.
Matthias laughed. “You'll have to excuse my friend, Luis. She was expecting something more along the lines of a bed-and-breakfast with lace doilies.” He spoke in a deep, even, articulate voice. He sounded well educated and Luis suspected he was the aggressive type, and not just because his arms and shoulders were so muscular and wide. Matthias seemed to have a sense of self confidence most young men in their early twenties didn't have. Luis hadn't been that way in his early twenties—he'd never been that way. Maybe it was because of the dichotomy of Matthias's blue-collar appearance and his academic mannerisms. He reminded Luis of a humpy firefighter on a beefcake calendar, yet he spoke as if he were ready to give a lecture on William Shakespeare.
Luis smiled. He was still wondering why the two dipshit girls had to travel in a pair to use a bathroom in a little dumpy cabin. At least he didn't have to listen to Beth Anne's voice for a while.
Hood walked to the bedroom door and set a couple of suitcases beside it. One was a green vinyl satchel, the other a large black leather doctor's bag identical to Jase's suitcase. Jase had never been interested in designer luggage. But he did prefer old-fashioned suitcases that looked like doctor's bags.
“I guess we're all stuck here for who knows how long,” Matthias said. He sounded calmer now, and his voice had a gentleness that made him appear shy and withdrawn, as if he were hiding something, or he'd done something wrong. To look at him, Luis might have guessed he was a model. He reminded Luis of a model with dark brown hair he'd worked with on a photo shoot for a sports gear company in New Jersey. Though Hood wasn't as muscular as Matthias, Luis suspected he had a well-defined body beneath his worn brown leather jacket and sagging jeans.
Luis said, “I think Jase and I might just head back to Lancaster and try to get a hotel room somewhere. You guys can stay here. We don't mind.” Now he couldn't wait to get out of there. If they wanted the cabin, he'd give them his blessings.
But Matthias sent him a half smile and said, “You're not going anywhere tonight. On our way in we saw them closing the roads. As it was, we took a chance driving through the road ourselves. There's no way in or out of town until the rain stops, and this rain is supposed to continue for the next two days.” He shrugged. “I guess we're all stuck with each other for a while.”
“You've got to be kidding me,” Luis said. He crossed to where Matthias was standing and gaped at him. “We're stuck in this town indefinitely?”
Hood looked down at his shoes and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn't seem too pleased either.
Matthias smiled and spoke with resignation. “I'm afraid so. I hope someone brought a deck of cards.”
“Maybe there's a small hotel in town,” Luis said. “Or maybe there's a bed-and-breakfast nearby.”
“Seriously,” Matthias said. “Did you see that town when you passed through? There's one cafe and a church. At least we have a roof over our heads here.”
Luis's heart started to beat faster. They were stuck with four total strangers, and he was beginning to wonder about Jase. He should have been back by now. He'd been gone more than a half hour and Luis was afraid something might have happened to him. “Did you happen to see where the barn was when you drove in?” Luis asked.
Matthias and Hood exchanged glances. “I saw a big old building on the right.” Hood pointed to the corner of the living room that faced north and said, “It's down there, near a group of tall pines and a broken down split rail fence. But I didn't see anyone around it.”
“It's not like Jase to take this long,” Luis said as he crossed to the front door, high-heeled boots clicking against the barn boards. “I'm going out to look for him.” Something was wrong. Luis felt it in his bones.
“You can't go out alone dressed like that,” Matthias said. He glanced up and down at Luis.
“Watch me,” said Luis as he reached for the doorknob. He wasn't going to let a total stranger tell him what to do.
“Wait,” Matthias said. “I'll come with you. You could get hurt out there.”
“You don't have to come,” Luis said.
Matthias walked to the door and reached into his black satchel. He pulled out an umbrella and put his palm on the small of Luis's back. “I'm coming with you. Let's go.”
Luis could see there was no point in arguing with him, so he adjusted the jacket and opened the door.
When they were outside, Matthias opened the umbrella and put his arm around Luis. He pulled Luis close to his side and they started toward the barn. The rain came down so hard it pounded the umbrella and didn't do much to keep them from getting wet. Luis's high-heeled boots kept getting stuck in the mud and Matthias had to practically lift him up to keep him moving. At one point, when Luis almost fell sideways, he gave up and put his arms around Matthias. When he did, Matthias reached down to support him and rested his large hand on the small of his back. That's when the back of the jacket Luis was wearing rode up and exposed his ass. Luis vowed he'd never wear anything this stupid again.
By the time they reached the old unpainted barn, they were both drenched. The white high-heeled boots were covered with mud and Matthias's hand was now on Luis's ass. Luis didn't know whether Matthias had touched him there on purpose or by accident. He didn't care. He stepped away and looked back and forth. The Tahoe was parked with the headlights off. The inside of the barn was pitch black. Luis wished he had a flashlight. He shouted, “Jase, are you in here?”
While Luis shouted for Jase, Matthias opened the car door and switched on the headlights. But when Luis ran toward the front of the car, he tripped and fell on the dirt floor. Matthias ran over to him and helped him up, and he didn't think twice about brushing the dirt off Luis's bare ass. Luis didn't say anything, not even when Matthias continued to brush him off even when the dirt was gone. He just held Matthias's arm and started looking around for Jase again. He couldn't have just disappeared. He had to be in there somewhere.