Room for You(14)

“Oh, Kacie … you do look like a wet dog,” I said, staring at myself in the mirror. I sighed, pulling off my t-shirt that was completely plastered to my body, and cursed out loud at my decision to change into jeans after breakfast. Trying to pull them off was like trying to pull a sumo wrestler through a child’s inner tube. I kicked and struggled until they were off and in a heap with the other wet clothes on the bathroom floor.

I stood, examining myself one more time in front of the mirror wearing only my bra and panties. “A wet dog who needs to hit the gym, no less.”

Just then, the bathroom door flew open and Piper came flying in. “Sorry, Mom, gotta pee!” She rushed by me, pulling her pants down as she ran.

“Piper!” I called out, “You have to learn to knock. You can’t just barge in on people.” I turned to shut the bathroom door and stopped dead in my tracks. Brody was standing in the hallway, carrying a bath towel, staring right at me.

“Uh … sorry,” he said, covering his eyes like a toddler playing peek-a-boo while I jumped behind the bathroom door. “I was about to knock when she ran past and opened the door. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. Um … I think the bathroom down the hall is … available.” I was glad he was still covering his face because I was certain mine was twelve different shades of red.

“Okay, thanks. Sorry.” He mumbled through his hands and turned to walk down the hall, bumping into a table my mom had full of picture frames, knocking almost all of them over.

“Shit!” He hissed as he bent over and picked up the frames, trying to put them back the way they were but they kept falling over, taking new ones with them like dominoes.

Closing the door gently, I grinned to myself as I heard him continue to struggle with the frames. I lectured Piper on the importance of knocking before you barge through a door. She got dressed and scampered off as I closed the door behind her, locking it securely.

Embarrassed as I’d ever been in my whole life, I wanted to climb into the shower and let the scalding hot water wash away the last ten minutes of my life.





“Well, that could have gone better.” I sat on the closed toilet lid and held my head in my hands, wondering what the hell just happened. I had raised my hand to knock on the door and before I knew it, Piper flew by me, flung the door open and suddenly I was staring at Kacie in her bra and underwear.

It was a total accident … or a blessing. A beautiful, messy-headed gift from God, wrapped in a package of sexy curves and sparkling green eyes, topped with a black lace bow just waiting for me to unwrap it. Jesus, she looked good. Simple, but just enough to drive me bat shit crazy. Every time I look at her for the rest of the day, I’ll think of her standing there in her black skivvies, shocked as hell when she saw me. Just reliving that moment was too much.

I stood up, turned the shower on and stepped in, leaving it on cold for a few minutes.

The rest of the afternoon, things were awkward with Kacie and it was killing me. She avoided looking at me and left the room when I entered it. She obviously didn’t want to be around me. I wanted to talk to her and apologize again so we could go back to normal, but I couldn’t get her alone. I had a hemorrhoid named Ashley following me around everywhere I went.

Fred kept me up-to-date on the latest weather reports.

“Looks like they’re going to re-open that bridge tomorrow at 5AM, assuming the rain slows down overnight like they’re saying it will.”

I’d learned that Fred spent his evenings up in his apartment watching old cop shows and listening to his police scanner, which I assumed was how he had the insider info on the bridge closures.

“Really? Well, that’s good. I’ll work on getting my truck out before dark, then tomorrow I’ll be on my way, bright and early.”

Fred looked over at me and nodded slowly. He seemed a little bummed to hear I’d be leaving.

“I was thinking, maybe later in the summer, I could come back and you can show me what kind of fish we can pull out of that lake back there?”

“That sounds great, Brody. You just come back here anytime you want. Maybe next time you can rent a room and ditch that old couch.” He reached across the island to shake my hand.

“Fred, did we just have a moment?” I teased him, grabbing his hand and giving it a firm shake back.

Fred laughed loudly. “I guess we did.”



I missed dinner, instead spending the next three hours cramming branches under the tires of my truck to get it unstuck. I came inside and everything was pretty quiet. The kitchen was cleaned up except for a plate of food covered with Saran Wrap on the island. I walked over and was thrilled that the note on top had my name on it. I didn’t know Kacie’s handwriting, but I was pretty sure she left this out for me. If pot roast and red potatoes were her idea of a peace offering, I was going to marry that girl tomorrow. I sat down and dove right in.

“Hey.”

I looked up from my plate to see Kacie standing in the corner of the kitchen, nervously playing with her silver necklace. I stared at that necklace all night last night trying to see what was engraved on it. She probably thought I was staring at her boobs—she would have been right about that too. I cleared my throat.

“Hey. Uh … thanks for this. It’s delicious, beyond delicious,” I replied, hoping I didn’t have gravy all over my face.