Read Bayou Born (Fleur de Lis Series) for Free Online

overflowing gutters.
    A quick flash of light made her breath catch.
    Danger! Her brain screamed.
    Lightning zigzagged.
    Thunder boomed, then echoed.
    The windows rattled.
    She flinched, scrunching her neck like a turtle retreating into its shell, and closed her eyes.
    When the rumbling lessened, she opened one eye first, and remembered the man. Pressing closer to the window, she rubbed a spot in the condensation. Had he made it to safety?
    Another slash of light brightened the sky. The hair on her neck stood up. She jumped back and shivered. As though in slow motion, a jagged flash of light struck a pine tree in the Commons. Sparks flew. The trunk exploded. Steam, a visible cloud in the rain, drifted over the remaining stump. Most of the toppled tree blocked the sidewalk between the Student Union and the Administration building.
    Trembling, she looked again. Where was the man?
    She spotted him off to the left, under the shelter of the deep doorway, the front entrance of the Student Union.
    He moved to stand directly on the opposite side of the glass from her. Water splattered as he shook his umbrella.
    Thunder rumbled again. A streak of jagged light raced across the sky. She hesitated to move closer to the window, yet, something about the man drew her. She stepped so close to the glass, her breath fogged a spot. Any sane person would have backed away, but fascination held her captive.
    The rest of the world was dark and gray—he was in living color. His long sleeve, white shirt looked crisp as though laundered and starched, not just pulled from a dryer. His dark denim jeans looked new. He didn’t appear wet, or even damp, although water still dripped from the tip of his umbrella and formed a small puddle near his pristine leather cowboy boots.
    About a foot away, with only glass between them, he appeared to be staring at the damaged pine tree. A stray lock of dark brown hair fell over his forehead. He pushed it aside, but stubbornly it fell again. Was he a student? He looked older than the usual twenty-something, but that didn’t mean anything. She had students of all ages in the adult education class she’d taught before.
    She pressed her palm flat against the window. Her fingers itched to move the stray lock of hair off his forehead. Feeling bold, she smiled and winked. She could flirt safely, hidden behind dark tinted glass.
    He took a step closer.
    Her breath hitched in her throat.
    He smiled and winked. When his hand pressed on the outside of the glass in the same spot where hers pressed from the inside, they were palm to palm, but for the tinted glass between them. The man grinned wider.
    Had she ever seen a sexier smile? Even his chocolate brown eyes danced with laughter. Something about his sexy smile...she couldn’t look away. Had they met before?
    A streak of light flashed like a giant strobe. She covered her ears, anticipating the deafening boom. The next lightning strike sent her diving to the floor.
    The lights in the bookstore popped off.
    Everything rattled.
    She covered her head, expecting the vibrating windows to shatter, certain lightning had struck the building.
    Lying there, she waited for disaster. Echoing booms of thunder lessened. Backup lights flickered on. Slowly the world came back into focus.
    “Branna, you okay?” Brian Murphy yelled.
    “I think so,” she said, afraid to rise.
    A deep thrusting groan from the air conditioning system muted the music that started playing again over the sound system. Florescent lights hummed on again.
    Panicked, she jumped up. Where was the man in the window? For a second, time had frozen them. Linked them somehow. Only she and he existed in the storm.
    Where had he gone?
    Who was he?
    How would she ever find out?

Chapter 4
    The next day, standing on the driveway, Branna shielded her eyes from the bright noon sun. She waited with a furniture moving crew she’d hired from U-Haul to help her dad unload and set up furniture, all the things her parents insisted