Room for You(13)

YES, FOR SURE! OKAY, DEREK IS STICKING HIS HAND DOWN MY PANTS YET AGAIN, GOTTA GO BREAK IT OFF. STAY DRY. LOVE YA!



I put my phone down and looked outside at the pouring rain. Maybe Alexa and my mom were right—I was too closed off from the possibility of love again. Was I even really in love with Zach the last time? Ugh, just saying his name to myself made my stomach turn. I couldn’t think about this right now, my brain was as cloudy as the sky out my window. I went to find the girls and persuade them to play a game with me.

The house was silent. No one was in the living room or the kitchen. I walked through the hallway to the front room and found my mom sitting on the couch looking out the window, smiling.

“Where is everyone?”

“Oh, they’re all milling around here somewhere.”

“Where are Piper and Lucy?”

“Brody was taking Diesel out to go potty and they asked if they could go with...” She smiled at me and nodded her head toward the window.

I walked over and looked out and my heart stuttered to a halt. Lucy and Piper were on the driveway with Brody, jumping in and out of rain puddles. I looked at my mom who was all teary-eyed watching them have fun.

“You’re such a sap,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her on my way through the front door.

I stepped discreetly out onto the large country-style covered porch and hugged myself because of the chill in the air. My arms were cold, but my heart was warm watching the girls. Their soaking wet hair was glued to their faces, but I don’t think I had ever seen them smile that big. They giggled wildly as the three of them held hands jumping in and out of every puddle they could find.

“This one, Brody, do this one!” Lucy squealed.

“This one? Okay, Twinkies … get ready!” Brody stepped back a few feet and pumped his arms, gaining momentum before he jumped as high as I’d ever seen a grown man jump. He landed right in the center of a huge puddle. They shrieked and shielded their faces from the wave of water crashing over them.

“You guys are going to catch pneumonia!” I called out to them, not really wanting them to stop. I was having too much fun watching. They looked over at me and whooped again when Brody jumped high and landed in the same puddle.

“Mom! Come jump with us!” Piper called out, marching around in a circle.

“No way, I’m just fine up here watching you. You have fun.”

“Come on, Mom, pleeeeease!” Lucy begged.

“Yeah, come on, Mom,” Brody teased, motioning me with his fingers. “Get out here.”

“No thanks, you guys look like a bunch of wet dogs.” I looked over at Diesel who was curled up at the end of the porch watching them. He cocked his head and looked at me. “No offense, Diesel.”

“Wet dogs? We look like wet dogs?” Brody exclaimed. “What do you think of that, girls?”

“Booooo!” They yelled in unison, still puddle jumping.

“I have an idea,” Brody said, pulling the girls into a huddle. He put his arms around their shoulders and talked quietly.

“Okay, ready … one … two…”

“THREE!” The girls yelled out together as Brody took off in a sprint straight for me. I held my hands up in front of me, backing up toward the house.

“No, no, no! What are you-?” Before I could finish the sentence, Brody picked me up and carried me out onto the driveway. I instinctively wrapped my hands around his neck, enjoying the feel of his strong shoulders under my arms. Before I had time to get comfortable, we were standing over a puddle and he was grinning devilishly at me.

“No way, don’t you dare,” I warned him.

“What do you think, Twinkies? She called us wet dogs. What should we do with her?”

“Pud-dles! Pud-dles!” They chanted in unison.

Little traitors.

With the girls cheering him on, Brody marched around the driveway in circles, splashing my butt in drops of cold water. The girls laughed louder and harder with each puddle. I forgot how cold I was when I looked at their sweet little faces and how much fun they were having.

“Jump! Jump!” Lucy jumped up and down clapping.

Brody looked right into my eyes, our faces only inches apart. My heart was beating so hard I was wondering if he could feel it too. I hadn’t wanted to kiss someone that bad in a really long time. If the girls hadn’t been right there, I might have made the first move.

“You wouldn’t do that to me.” I narrowed my eyes, looking straight into his.

“Wouldn’t I?” He raised an eyebrow in defiance and with that, up in the air we both went. His feet slammed to the ground two seconds before a huge rush of cold water covered my whole backside. I squealed and arched my back, almost falling out of Brody’s grasp.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said, squeezing me tighter. “I’m gonna teach you to relax and have fun if it kills me.” He jumped again, slamming his feet harder this time. Water covered my back and flew all the way up over my head. I blinked several times before my vision was clear enough to see Brody lick the water off his lips and flash that killer smile again. I threw my head back and laughed just as hard as the girls, quite relaxed in Brody’s sturdy arms.

After another hour of playing in the rain with Brody and the girls, I was chilled to the bone and desperate for a hot shower. I grabbed my stuff out of our bathroom and headed to the guest wing of the house. Passing the first bathroom, I slipped quietly into the second and dropped my stuff on the small table in the corner.