Angered Seasons: The Worst Birthday Ever (Volume One) by Mireille Chester Read Free Book Online

by four with the skill saw.
    “Does this have to look good?”
    Lane smiled and shook his head. “It just has
to be solid.”
    Pete nodded and was about to cut the sheet in
half when he stopped, walked to his apron, grabbed his tape
measurer and chalk line, and marked out his cuts. He caught me
looking at him and he shrugged.
    “It feels wrong not doing it right.”
    I grinned and started to nail the frames
together as Lane handed me the cut two by fours. I put the two
extra pieces into the middle so that it looked like I was building
a miniature wall. No one was going to punch through this baby if I
could help it. Pete screwed the doubled up plywood to my frame and
handed it to Jason who took it and headed to the window, impact
driver in hand.
    “What do you think?” Pete stood, broom in
hand, looking at the windows.
    Lane took a deep breath and slowly blew it
out of his nose. “I think that if they try to get in here, they
might think twice about it once they start.”
    “What about the door?” Marie was eyeing the
object in question, fear clear on her face. She set Ashley into her
car seat and covered her with a baby blanket.
    “Don’t worry, Marie.” Jason opened it and
took a quick look around before popping the casing off. Pete was
there in a flash, drill in hand. It didn’t take long for them to
flip the frame around so that the door swung in instead of out.
    I glanced at Lane as he replaced the rest of
the screws on the hinges of the back door then screwed three two by
fours across it so it couldn’t be pushed open. He blew the dark
bangs out of his eyes. Dark blue eyes met mine.
    He frowned. “What?”
    I shrugged. I had so many thoughts racing
through my head, I couldn’t settle on just one. Was Iggy going to
be alright? Were the others going to make it here on time? Was this
all for nothing; were we all about to die? My heart dropped. Had I
been wrong about not telling Lane how I felt?
    “Hey, what’s wrong? You look like you just
lost your best friend.” Lane grinned.
    “You’re not funny.” I tried not to smile
back.
    “Yes, I am. It’s one of the things you love
about me.”
    “You’re a nerd.”
    His grin widened. “Another thing you love
about me.”
    I started to laugh. “Stop it. We shouldn’t be
laughing. This whole situation is horrible.”
    His smile softened. “That’s why it’s the
perfect time to be laughing.”
    I inhaled deeply. “How are you so calm?”
    He grunted. “I’m not. I am freaking out.”
    I raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah,
right.”
    “No, really.” He took my hand and put it over
his heart. I could feel it pounding in his chest.
    “Wow.” I looked up at him and smiled. “You’re
not kidding.”
    His grin returned. “I told you.”
    “I’m scared, Lane.” I let him pull me to his
chest and closed my eyes as his arms wrapped around me.
    “We’ll be ok.”
    “This isn’t one of those Zombie movies. We’re
not going to find some weird person with a key to the end of this
epidemic. If anything, we’re probably bunched in with those that
are the first to die.”
    “No way.” He pressed his lips to my forehead.
“Look. We have the guy who has a girlfriend and a kid, the single
handsome guy, when the others get here we’ll have the jokers, the
one that panics, and the girl who goes off and get herself killed.”
He frowned. “Only we’ll make sure Lizzy doesn’t go off on her own.”
He nodded, satisfied with his analogy. “We have all the key
elements of the main cast of characters.”
    “And what about us? You left us out.”
    “Well, obviously, I’m the mature and brave
one that will keep everyone from panicking.” He grinned. “And
you’ll be the one that ends up rocking in a corner after you lose
your mind.”
    “Bah! I will not! I’m the super awesome one
that will kick ass.”
    His chuckle sounded against my ear. “I don’t
doubt it.”
    There was a honk outside and I reluctantly
let go of him to see who had made it to