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“Man, I hate this.”
“I know.”
J.T. stayed with Sage for another thirty minutes, then she insisted he go home before the weather got worse. The rain was now a steady downpour. But the wind hadn’t picked up yet. She sent him off with a promise to stay put until Sunday.
By the time he was almost to Joey’s driveway, J.T. had his wipers on full blast. The rain was really coming down now, and he decided before he went home, he should check on Joey and Finn. He turned on her drive, and parked as close to the front porch as he could. After pulling up the hood on his rain slicker, and taking a breath of resolve, he got out of the car and dashed the four feet to the porch steps. He tried to shake off some of the water before knocking on the door.
Joey answered it as he was about to knock again.
“J.T.? What are you doing here?”
“I was headed home, but I wanted to check on you first.”
“Come inside.”
He slipped off his slicker and hung it on a hook by the door, before going through it. The raincoat had kept his coat from getting any wetter. And he took it off and hung it inside the door.The sweater he was wearing over his flannel shirt was mostly dry. But his pants and boots were wet.
“I’m kind of a wet mess.” He ran a hand through his hair, which was also wet, despite the hood he’d been wearing.
“I don’t care if you’re wet. You should be home in your trailer. Or better yet, at the ranch house. Stay for a minute and dry off. Let me get you a towel.”
As she went for a towel, J.T. left his boots at the door and went to the living room. It had furniture in it now and Finn was on the couch playing a game on a tablet. He looked up from it when he saw J.T.
“Hi. It’s raining out.”
“Yeah. I noticed that.” Joey came up beside him and handed him a towel. He dried his hands and face, then rubbed his hair. “Thank you.” He glanced at the stairs. “Any leaks up there?”
“I went to check about an hour ago. But it hadn’t really started raining yet.”
“Want me to go take a look?”
“I’ll come with you. I have buckets up there, just in case.” She looked at Finn. “Honey, I want you to stay on the couch until we get back.”
“Okay.”
“And if the lights go out…”
“I’m not afraid of the dark, Mom.”
“I know, sweetheart. I just want to be able to find you. So stay put.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She and J.T. headed for the stairs and went up to the landing. There were three bedrooms on each side of the hall, with a bathroom on either side after the first bedroom. The rooms on the end were bigger, and they each had their own private bathroom.
J.T. and Joey each took a side and started checking the rooms. J.T. found a leak in the second room and he took one of the five-gallon buckets from the hallway and set it under the drip. Joey found two in the middle bedroom on her side. And there was one in each of the bigger bedrooms. She’d brought six buckets and five of them were needed to cover the leaks.
She watched the water drip into the bucket in the last bedroom. “How long will it take to fill the bucket?”
“Depends on how long and steady the rain is. But at this rate. An hour. Maybe two. We’ll have to keep an eye on them.”
“We?”
“I’d like to stay awhile if it’s okay with you.”
“It’s definitely okay with me. But don’t you have to check on your trailer?”
“It made it through two blizzards this winter. My trailer’s fine.”
