The rain hits right as I step out of the pickup. Great timing. Like the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. By the time I’m standing on Wren’s doorstep, knocking on her door, I’m soaked to the skin.
Wren’s bike’s on the porch, fitted out with a bigger basket, panniers, and off-road tires. Ned went all out. Warm lights are peeking out from every window in the cottage. When I knock, I hear a skittering sound then a thump on the door. Wren opens the door, wearing a thin camisole slipping down her shoulder and short, baggy shorts. The kind of casual that women don’t know is sexy as hell. She has her hand on a big dog that probably weighs more than she does. This is the first time I’ve seen her without her sunglasses. If I thought she was beautiful before, I had no idea. I don’t know how long I stare before my brain turns back on and I remember why I’m standing there and realize that yes—she still has a stick up her ass and she’s frowning at me again.
“Yes?” She says it like we’ve never seen each other before.
“Storm passing us by. Looks like this deluge is going to last a while.”
“You stopped by to give me a weather report? Or are you warning me that my cottage is going to float away?”
“You might want to put on a swimsuit.”
She stares at me, then her brows furrow. “Really?”
“No. Your cottage isn’t in a flood zone. You walk a couple minutes thattaway”—I nudge a thumb toward the direction of Billie’s Marsh— “and you’ll be wading through puddles that’ll hit your”—I stop and smile—"Skip that. You’ll be swimming.”
She frowns.
“Tomorrow, you might want to wear waders if you take Monster on a walk around the lake.”
“Glad I packed my waders.”
“Right.” I hold out her phone. “You left this in the pickup. I figured it was yours?”
Surprise then anxiety flash across her face. She pauses before reaching out and taking it from my hand.
“I didn’t know there were any of these in existence anymore.”
She looks away, a faint smile forming on her full lips. I squint to make sure I’m not seeing things.
“It is, in fact, the very last one in existence,” she says.
“Glad I was able to save it.”
“Me too. The universe thanks you.”
“It’s the least I can do… for the universe.”
A crack of lightning lights up the porch.
“Well, that’s my lighting cue,” I tell her. I turn to go, my whole body resisting because evidently, it’s a sucker for punishment as her full lips are pressed into a frown again.
“Wait!” Her eyes scan the sky. “Am I okay here… with all these big trees looming over the cottage?”
“Probably.”
“Oh.” She bites her lip.
“I doubt tonight’s the night any of those are coming down.” I turn and point at the oaks on the other side of the cottage. “Maybe one of those, but Ned and Danni thinned out the deadfall, so probably not.”
“Probablynot?”
“Life’s a risk.” I’m one step away from throwing myself back into the torrential downpour when she yells out, “Don’t go!”
I turn back to her and nod. “I figured I was right.”
“About what?”
“About the crush you have on me.”
