A Matter of Honesty

A Matter of Honesty

by

Stephanie Morris

To my brother Broderick. Without you this book would

have never been written. Thank you for all the good

trips to Norman with Dad and Mom. It is times like

these when I truly cherish them.

Because of you I will always have Sooner Pride.

Congratulations on your recent accomplishment. I am

proud to call you my big brother. I love you.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the

author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any

resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is

entirely coincidental.

A Matter of Honesty By Stephanie Morris

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This is a work of fiction. All references to real places, people, or events are

coincidental, and if not coincidental, are used fictitiously. All trademarks, service

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“ Help me! Somebody help me, please! ”

Lauryn Anderson heard a soothing, calm voice reply to her. “Keep calm, ma‘am.

I‘m almost to you.”

“Hurry, please!”

When had the tornado started? She had known that there was a tornado watch

out but nothing had been confirmed. The last thing Lauryn remembered was going to

sleep watching King Arthur in her motel room. Clive Owen was one of her favorite

actors and she made a point of watching his movies every time one came on. During

the movie she had made sure to flip back and forth to keep an eye out for the tornado

watch. Evidently it had elevated from a tornado watch to a tornado warning. Had the

sirens sounded? If they had she hadn‘t heard them.

Tornados weren‘t uncommon in Norman, Oklahoma, but they didn‘t happen

that often. During tornado season this was a risk you had to take if you had nowhere

else to go. Right now she was stuck. Down on her luck and having very hard times.

She closed her eyes and tried to think about something else. It was hard to do.

Her life was in such turmoil. Due to the downturn in the economy she had lost her job

a few months ago. The company hadn‘t been thoughtful enough to give her a

severance package and unemployment benefits were barely enough to scrape by on.

She tried not to complain because she had heard many sad stories of other people who

had lost everything and had no one to turn to. However, she had never imagined being

one of those people. Now she was. She wasn‘t at a true point of desperation, but she

was getting there. She had tried living at the homeless shelter to save money but some

of the characters there were a little too rough for her.

To be honest, things had been in a downward spiral for her for a while now.

She had lost her mom at a young age. A year ago she‘d lost her father to lung cancer.

Her mother‘s side of the family had never liked her father much, so she‘d never had a

real relationship with any of them. Her father also distanced himself from his side of

the family. It had pretty much just been her and her father over the years. He had been

a hard man to live with. He‘d never hurt her physically, but he had done a great deal of

damage to her mentally and emotionally. She became the loner that he‘d bred her to

be and had a hard time building emotional relationships with people, especially men.

She was young, but there had yet to be a serious relationship with the opposite sex.

Her experience with men was abysmal. Lauryn was pulled out of her internal musing

as she felt a hand grab her ankle.

“Can you move?”

“Yes,” she called out, her voice hoarse from shouting.

“Is anything broken?”

“I don‘t think so.”

Lauryn used her arms to keep the tree branch that had fallen into her motel

room at bay. She couldn‘t believe this was happening to her. She was a quiet person

who never bothered anyone and had managed to dodge any major trouble up to this

point. It wasn‘t that she was an overly cautious person or anything; she just made a

habit of not going out to look for trouble.

“Ma‘am.”

“Yes?”

Lauryn looked in the direction of the voice that was speaking to her. It was very

soothing—and he had very nice hands. They were a little rough, an indication that he

had experience with hands-on labor.

“Is your name Lauryn?”

She hesitated before answering. How did this guy know her name? She always

kept up on current events and there were plenty of strange people in the world. On

the other hand, she was trapped under a tree; she wouldn‘t be able to make it out

from under it by herself. She needed this man‘s help. She quickly decided it was okay

to confirm who she was.

“Yes, it is.”

She thought she heard a sigh of relief from him before he spoke to her again.

“Okay Lauryn, I‘ll pull you out of there in a second. What I need you to do is to

scoot toward me as I lift these branches. We‘re going to work one section at a time.”

“Okay.”

“Now.”

Lauryn felt the branch near her shift, and she scooted down. They continued

the process until she was free of the tree.

She looked around in shock when she saw the early morning sky. The roof of

the motel was gone.

Slowly, she became aware of the hand grasping her elbow to steady her. She

looked at the man who‘d helped her escape and her breath caught in her throat. For a

moment she forgot to breathe. Even in the dim lighting she could tell she was staring

at one of the most handsome men she had ever seen in her life. She stared at him for so

long that he looked at her with concern. The experts were right. Suffering a traumatic

experience did have a way of affecting one‘s rationale.

“Are you okay?”

Embarrassment surged through her and she hoped it didn‘t show. Even though

she was a woman of African-American descent her skin tone was light enough to

show her embarrassment. She averted her gaze before answering him. “Yes.”

She followed his gaze as he surveyed the area. She couldn‘t help but gasp at the

sight of destruction the tornado had caused. She looked at him in horror.

“Where is everyone who was in the motel?”

She saw a few people milling around and prayed that no one had lost their life

or been seriously injured.

“Everyone who was in the motel is safe. You were the last person we were

looking for.”

She sighed in relief, studying him carefully. “Is that how you knew my name?”

He nodded. “You‘ve suffered a shock. Are you sure you‘re okay?”

She looked at him with confusion. “Who are you?”

He smiled, causing her heart to skip a beat. She would never have thought it

possible for a man to become sexier by the minute, but this man was most certainly

the exception to that rule.

“I‘m Steve Mitchell.”

“Were you staying at the motel?”

He shook his head. “No. I was visiting my friend Dillon who lives a few blocks

away from here. We took shelter when the tornado hit, then we came out to see if

anyone needed help.”

She shivered and wrapped her arms around her body. She liked the sound of his

voice and was content to listen to him speak.

It was drizzling rain. Even though she was dressed warmly in cotton

sleepwear, she was completely soaked and starting to catch a chill. She hadn‘t

realized the tree had been giving her some shelter from the rain. He tightened his grip

on her elbow.

“Let‘s get out of here. Be careful; you‘ll need to watch your step. The rescue

teams are having a hard time getting through. There appears to be widespread

damage.”

“Why did you come up here?”

He smiled. “Because I heard your cries for help. I didn‘t want to wait for rescue.

Who knows how long it would take the Fire Department and EMTs to arrive? Believe

me, it was worth the risk.”

She remained silent while he looked for a safe path out of the rubble, and then

took a step. Her legs wobbled and he turned to look at her.

“Whoa. Watch your step. A few people injured themselves trying to escape. I

don‘t want you to be another.”

She wondered if she was going into shock, and wasn‘t sure if it was from the

sight spread out before her or the news she‘d just received. She swayed again and he

stopped, looking at her with an expression full of concern.

“You still seem unsteady. I think it might be better if I carry you until we‘re on

steadier ground.”

She didn‘t have a chance to protest before he swept her up into his arms. He

carried her down the rubble of what was left of the motel. She didn‘t consider this to

be a small feat, considering she was five feet eight inches tall. However, Steve towered

over her by a good five inches at least. She could feel the solid build of his body

against hers.

He didn‘t stop to put her down once they were safely out of the motel. Instead

he carried her toward a double cab truck and placed her inside. She saw him run over

to a man, shifting carefully through debris, and speak briefly to him before heading

back to the car. He slid in the driver‘s side next to her and started the engine. She was

thankful when he turned on the heat. The warmth took some of the chill from her

bones but she still shivered.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked through trembling lips.

“To the emergency room at Memorial.”

She shook her head. “No. I can‘t afford it. I don‘t have a job or medical

insurance.”

He didn‘t respond, but his grip tightened on the steering wheel. When he

didn‘t stop the car despite her protests, she turned to look at him. His light brown

hair had started to dry with the car‘s heat, leaving him with a shaggy look that made

her want to run her fingers through it. Dark green eyes were focused on the road

ahead of them. Maybe he was concentrating hard on maneuvering through the debris

and people crowding the roads and not paying attention to her.

“Did you hear me?”

He nodded without sparing her a glance. “Yes, but you need to go to the

hospital. You‘re cut and scraped up, a tree fell on you, and you‘re in shock. You need

medical attention. We can work out the payment situation later.”

Not knowing what else to say, Lauryn sat back and huddled into the seat. It

had been a while since someone had shown true concern for her well-being. When

they pulled up to the hospital‘s emergency room, Lauryn was fully prepared to get out

and walk in on her own but he surprised her by sweeping her up in his arms again. He

carried her inside, depositing her in a waiting room chair.

He checked in at the counter, picked up the necessary forms for her to fill out,

and snagged a blanket which he wrapped around her shoulders. “Here. Fill out as

much as you can while I park the car.”

She looked down at the forms, not really seeing what was on them. Her hand

began to tremble and tears blurred her vision. Everything she had was gone. All had

been lost to the tornado, and she‘d been forced to sell her parents‘ house to pay off the

outstanding debts her father neglected to pay.

Ironically, some bill collectors still came after people even in the event of their

death. She would never understand how her father had managed to hide the fact he

hadn‘t been paying property taxes. Once she‘d lost her job and didn‘t have enough

savings to keep the house she‘d had to give it up. As she sat there, with tears

streaming down her cheeks, Steve reappeared. He took the clipboard from her hands

and sat down beside her.

“What‘s wrong?”

She looked over at him and his expression tightened, seeing her fight to hold

back a sob as she tried to answer his question. But to no avail. Her sentence came out