Page 36 of Hometown Hottie

18

CARSON

Seriously?! Fucking seriously?

I blinked against the sudden brightness in the cottage, my body and soul raging against the interruption and begging me not to let it put a stop to the kiss. Nova wrenched her mouth away from mine before I could pull her closer to me again. Her hands dropped away from my head, and her body shot backward as she scooted all the way to the opposite end of the sofa.

“Damn it,” I muttered. “I thought it was supposed to take a couple hours.”

Her cheeks were flushed, her lips slightly swollen, and her breaths coming hard and fast, but she shook her head, her eyes wide as she suddenly got up. “Yeah, uh, the problem must not have been as big as they were expecting. Who knows?”

Tucking her loose hair behind her ears, she started blowing out the candles. Then she suddenly paused and tilted her head. A crease appeared between her eyebrows. “Hey, do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“Exactly.” She glanced at me, moving again now to continue extinguishing the candles. “The rain is letting up.”

Fuck. “No. What? How is that possible? I thought this storm was supposed to be huge.”

“I hate to break it to you, but it was. With that amount of wind, the worst of it has probably just blown over. It might keep raining for a while, though. Besides, it’s been hours since it hit. How long did you want it to last?”

Approximately as long as you would’ve had enough food to sustain us both, and then I only would’ve wanted it to let up enough to replenish our supplies before it started up again.“Yeah. no. I guess you’re right.”

I glanced at the slim grandfather clock in the corner of the room. It had been almost five hours since Ryan, Vance, and I had arrived at the bar. Time had flown, but it was gone—and so was the worst of the rain. Any minute now, Ryan was going to call to tell me they were heading out to start removing the trees blocking the road, and once that happened, who knew how long it would be before we had some time alone again?

“Nova—”

My phone started ringing and I flinched. If I didn’t answer it, he’d head straight here. Fallen trees be damned. If he so much as suspected that I wasn’t picking up because I’d fallen into bed with his sister, that would be it. He’d ramp his damn truck over the logs and come storming in here guns blazing.

“You should get that,” she said softly, all the candles now blown out as she glanced at my muddy boots. “Do you need dry socks before you head out?”

“Uh, okay.” I inhaled deeply and answered. “Hey, man. Are we in the clear?”

“Yep. I’m heading out to get the tractor now. Dad and Vance are already on their way. If you take the road down from Nova’s toward the bakery, you’ll find them.”

“I’ll be there in a few,” I said, then glanced at Nova. “Before you freak out when you see it, I’m wearing some of your old clothes. Mine were soaked through,”

“Thanks for the heads-up. We’re good, bro. I’ll see you in a minute.”

He hung up and I turned toward her just in time to see her features tighten like she was hurt. I frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Fine.” Her voice was too tight for it to be true, but their dad and Vance were already waiting for me. I didn’t have time to dig into whatever was happening.

“Okay, then.” I took the dry socks she’d fetched for me and quickly sat down to put them on. “Thanks for all this. Do me a favor and stay put, okay? Your parents are fine. The power is on. Vance and I will help your brother with whatever needs to be done before we take off. There’s no reason for you to go out there.”

She scoffed and shook her head at me. “I’ll be just fine, Carson. It’s not like this is the first storm I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, but it could turn back,” I said. “It’s just safer if you stay here.”

She rolled her eyes. “Uh huh. Thanks.”

I put my boots back on and stood up, crossing over to her but stopping just short of actually letting parts of our bodies touch. “Look, Nova, I’m not telling you what to do. I’m asking you to please stay here where it’s safe.”

“I need to check on the bakery.”

“I’ll do it. Just as soon as we’ve cleared the road. I’ll call you with an update, okay?”

Instead of responding, she just shrugged and held my gaze for one more second before she scoffed again, turned around, and marched to the door. “You’d better go before Ryan gets angry. God forbid we upset my brother, right?”