AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I made the brownies and slid them into the oven, set Jess’ cat shaped kitchen timer, stretched, and after shoving my feet into my ancient Converse, made my way out onto the decking.The dark brown wood was edged with a handrail all the way around, bisected by three little steps down onto the lawn.
The view was gorgeous out here.Birds tweeted from the trees.Clouds drifted across a robin’s egg blue sky.
Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to think it would be this serene all the time, but I’d wanted a change of pace, and I’d got it.
I stepped further out onto the deck, admiring everything around me, thinking about taking some photos for my Instagram feed.
And I put my foot straight through the wood.
“Shit!”
My beloved Converse had protected my skin from the potential splinters.I grabbed the handrail and tried to tug my leg free.No dice.
Double shit.
With my free hand, I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrolled through my contacts.Aunt Laurie would already be at the bakery.I could call her anyway, but it’d take her some time to get here.
Or…
My gaze skittered across the lawn and over the fence toward Rick Callahan’s house.
You need anything, you just call, okay?
The memory of his soothing, honey on grits voice came back to me.
Well, I was going to take him at his word, despite the fact that it was completely against the unspoken laws of all British people to ever impose on anyone for anything that wasn’t inevitable death.Or, perhaps running out of teabags.
Even then it was preferable to die without, god forbid, having inconvenienced another human.
It rung once, twice, and, cringing, I was about to hang up, thinking that maybe he’d left for work already, when he answered.
“Maddie.”
“Hi, Rick.”I felt about sixteen.My face flamed.
“You okay?”
I’m fine,I started to say, automatically.Stupid.“Actually, I’ve put my leg through Jess’ decking, and I can’t get free.”
He cursed.“Goddamn told her to get that fixed,” he groused, his drawl stronger when he was annoyed.“Are you hurt?How bad is it?”
“I’m not cut.I can wiggle, but the wood has sort of closed around my leg.”
“I’ll be right over,” he assured me.The rasp in his voice made me weak.God, this man made me feel like a lovestruck girl.Well, lust-struck anyway.“Stay where you are.”
“Oh, that isnota problem.”
He hung up.Before too long, I heard the slam of a door, and then I was treated to the sight of Rick Callahan walking across the land between the buildings.He rounded the side of Jess’ house, the toolbox in his hand clunking when he set it down after climbing the small stack of stairs onto the deck.
“Well, shit.”
I smiled.“That’s one way to put it.Thanks for coming.”
“Of course.”
He looked good.Had he come right from the shower?He smelled like mint, crisp and fresh, the ends of his hair curled.The gray Henley he wore was rolled up to the elbows and hugged his broad shoulders.
I swallowed back a surge of lust.The fact that I was trapped in a plank of rotting wood did help to curb my libido, thankfully.
