Page 7 of Coastal Reflections

She noticed that there were a couple of laptops resting on the desks in the room and she breathed a sigh of relief. At least those hadn’t gotten damaged—hopefully there were no other expensive electronics in the wet bags.

Feeling panicky, Audrey hurried out of the room and dashed downstairs. She could hear voices coming from the parlor, and she recognized one of them as Michelle’s. She stumbled into the parlor and saw that Michelle was sitting on the couch with Harper. Both of them looked happy and relaxed, and they were munching on scones as they sipped coffee and chatted.

Audrey thought for a split second that she hated to ruin their morning, but it didn’t stop her from blurting out, “We have an emergency.”

“What happened?” Michelle asked, immediately setting down her coffee cup and standing up.

Harper stood up as well. “Are you okay? Can I do something?”

Audrey felt tears spring into her eyes, but she was determined to hold them back. “There’s a water leak,” she said. “It’s coming through one of the closets upstairs. In the tiger lily room. There’s water all over the floor and all over the guests’ suitcases.”

“Oh no,” Harper murmured as Michelle bellowed, “Oh NO!”

“What do we do?” Audrey said, starting to pace. “It’s got to be a busted pipe. I have no idea what to do about that. We’ll have to call a handyman. Do we know anyone who deals with that kind of thing?”

“I don’t.” Michelle ran her fingers through her hair. “That’s what we heard last night, I’ll bet you any money. That rumbling noise? I shouldn’t have dismissed it when it got quieter. Shoot.”

“It’ll be okay,” Harper said, wrapping her arms around Audrey. “We need to turn off the water and then call a handyman.”

“We can’t turn off the water,” Audrey groaned. “I passed by at least two bedrooms that had people using the shower right now on my way downstairs.”

“Ah, yeah.” Harper wrinkled her nose. “Can’t very well take away their water with no warning while they’re all sudsy.”

“We’ll figure this out,” Michelle said. “We’ll make an announcement as soon as possible.”

In a flash, Audrey thought of the best next step. “Call Evan,” she said to Michelle. “He’ll know what to do. I’m going to go upstairs and start mopping up all that water. I don’t know if we can catch any of it in a bucket since it’s running down the side of the wall, but I’m going to try.”

“On it,” Michelle said, racing to the rotary dial phone that was resting on the reception desk. Audrey had a brief moment of thinking that it was cute that her daughter wanted to use that phone instead of her cellphone.

“I’ll come upstairs with you,” Harper told Audrey. “Where do you keep your towels?”

“Down here in a supply closet,” Audrey said. “We’ve got a few old dirty ones, but I think we’re going to have to use some of the good ones too.” Her voice caught, since she hated the thought of using their beautiful new towels to mop up dirty old water.

“It’ll be okay,” Harper assured her.

Together they raced to the closet and gathered up armloads of towels. Audrey found herself wishing that the mansion was equipped with an elevator as they hurried upstairs. By the time they reached the tiger lily room, she was out of breath.

She and Harper threw the towels onto the floor and started to mop up the water. Once they’d gotten it off the floor, they piled the wet towels in the closet, forming a barricade against the trickling water.

“Hopefully this stops it from coming out for a while,” Audrey said, sitting down on the floor and running her fingers through her curly auburn hair. “But we can’t do this for long. That closet floor is going to be totally destroyed if it stays wet for too long.”

She was fighting off another bout of tears when Evan stepped inside the room. As soon as she caught sight of him, she immediately felt better. She jumped up and hurried toward him.

“Don’t worry, I know just the guy,” Evan said, striding across the room and taking Audrey in his arms. “I’ve already called him. He’ll repair the leaky pipe for a fair price.”

Audrey took a deep breath, feeling greatly comforted by Evan’s steadiness. He squeezed her tightly and rocked her back and forth a little.

“There’s no need to worry,” he assured her, his voice low and soothing. “I know it seems like a disaster right now, but it can all be fixed.”

“Thank you so much,” she said, resting her cheek on his shoulder. “You came over here in the middle of your workday to help us out. I really appreciate it, Evan.” She stepped back so she could look into his eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. How can I repay you properly for everything you do for me?”

He gave her a peck on the cheek. “It’s my pleasure,” he told her. “And you repay me every day without even trying. Being in a relationship with you makes me feel like I need to repay you for all the happiness you bring me.”

They shared a kiss, and Harper let out a good-natured “Ahem!”

“Hi, sorry, still here,” she said with a laugh. “And so is Mr. Nasty the Leaky Pipe.”

“Very true,” Evan said, stepping back from Audrey gallantly. “My apologies, Harper. And as far as Mr. Nasty goes, my friend will be here in half an hour.”