Return To You: A Small Town, Second Chance Romance

46. Ethan

forty-six

“Come with me,” Colton says.

I send a group text to my siblings and parents to find out if everyone is okay. The answers come in: Everyone’s fine. I update them on the situation at Grace’s and her parents’ and get offers of help.

Me

Thx. I’ll let you know. Stay where you are for now, roads are unsafe.

I jump in Colton’s truck while he places a call. It’s late in the evening, so I’m not sure where he thinks he’s going. Or if he expects to get a call back. “Hey, man,” he says in his phone. “I’m gonna need a pump, some tarp, plywood, shingles. ’Spect I won’t be the only one to ask, but this is for my family. Can you set that aside for me? Yep… Nah, me and my friend can handle it. But thanks… yeah. Gotcha.”

“Got something?”

“Yeah, guy owes me. He owns a lumber yard and construction material.”

“He has a pump too?”

“Yup.” He swerves around dead branches littering the road. “Pretty bad.”

“That happen often?”

“More and more. I think the whole state’s getting hit this time. I’ll bring the pump back soon’s we’re done at my parents’. Other people’re gonna need it.”

“First time they’re flooded?”

“Yeah. I’ll have to ask Lucas about some drainage options. What happened at Grace’s?”

“Huge branch went through her roof. Or might have been a tree. I didn’t have time to check from the outside. I wanted to get her out of there before anything worse happened.”

“She give you a hard time?”

I shrug. Grace’s face materializes in my mind’s eye, her stubborn frown, the cute set of her mouth. “Not really.”

He lifts his chin. “You know how to talk to her.” He takes a turn toward Grace’s house. “Let’s check it out, see if we’ll need anything else.”

We round her house and it’s like I thought. Although it’s getting dark, we can see that a thick tree limb fell, nicking the roof in the process. “Good news,” Colton says. “Tree’s on the ground.”

There’s a gaping hole in the roof, the pelting rain punishing, damaging the house with every passing minute. “Let’s get that tarp.”

Colton nods. “Tarp first.”

At the lumber yard, I add two-by-fours, nails, and roof cement to my order while Colton loads the pump in the back of his truck. Colton’s guy throws in two harnesses and ropes. We borrow a ladder and head back to Grace’s house. Colton pulls headlamps from the back of his truck, and we get to work. The roof isn’t too steep, but it’s slippery in the rain, and the work is tricky. “Wouldn’t have risked it without the harnesses,” Colton yells over the falling rain, and I agree. We wrap one side of the tarp around the two-by-fours, nail it to the roof, pull it tight, then move to the next side.

“Can’t do the sealant now,” I say, wiping the water from my eyes. “It’s still raining.”

“Let’s get outta here,” Colton agrees.

We gather our tools, unhook our harnesses, and get back down. “Why don’t you check the inside while I pack up,” Colton says. “I’ll leave the harnesses and rope in the house, and the ladder right here.”

The power is back in Grace’s quiet house, and I’m reassured to see the leak is now a trickle. There must be accumulated water in the ceiling, plus some water still coming in through the tarp, that I couldn’t seal. I empty the largest of the buckets and place it back under the leak. Taking a quick look around, I’m moved to see how well decorated the bedroom is. Three of the walls are a warm cream color with pastel stencil, and the third wall is a deep pink. The twin bed, which I pushed to the side, has cute pink throw pillows, several layers of blankets and sheets folded like only women would know how to, just to make it look cute. It’s touching to see the care and love Grace has for her young cousin.

As I peel myself from the bedroom, something bugs me that I can’t quite put my finger on. But there’s no time for self-reflection, or reflection of any kind. From the kitchen window, I see Colton climb into the truck. I hurry around the house to shut off the lights we didn’t know were on when we lost power, then join him.

“Let’s head to your parents’.” On our way, we stop at a gas station to fill up several cans for the generator.

Colton and I end up digging a trench to run the water away from the house. With how soggy the soil is, it goes faster than we’d anticipated. Still, by the time we’re done, we’re soaked from the rain coming down and the brook rushing up around our legs, and muddy from head to toe. Literally. So much so I don’t even dare enter the house.

Colton goes in alone while I stand outside the basement’s hopper window to grab the hose and direct it away from the house and downhill, then connect the pump to the generator.

“Ready!” I call out to Colton. A low hum comes from the basement, and the hose vibrates gently under my hand.

“All good!” he answers.

“Good here too.” I turn around and see Grace, eyes wide.

“You okay, babe?” I ask her, worried.

She eyes me from top to bottom. “Ohmygod, what happened to you?”

I look down at the mud caking me and walk toward her, my shoes squeaking with water. “Just another day at the ranch.” I laugh, opening my arms and bending down to pretend kissing her, expecting her to shriek and run away.

Instead, she throws her arms around me and kisses me full on, molding her body to mine, darting her sweet tongue inside my mouth. With a growl, I cup her ass to get her closer to me. “What do you say we go check on your house now?”

She pulls herself from me to look at me like it’s the first time she sees me. “You have to stop doing stuff like that.”

“What kinda stuff?”

“Sweet stuff.”

Sweetstuff? Climbing on roofs, digging trenches at night under the rain is considered sweet now? “Not sure I follow, babe.”

She takes my hand and honest to god, it looks like there’re tears on her cheeks. Can’t be. It’s gotta be the rain.

She pops back inside, picks up Damian, we holler goodbye, and she drives us back home.

Home.

That’s what her house feels like to me.

Fuck.

“Me and Colt did a pretty good job, considering.” I update her on the roof situation, what needs to be done long term, and what her brother and I did earlier. “But I’ll have to finish up tomorrow and seal it real good. Soon’s it stops raining. Meanwhile, we’ll have to keep an eye on the bucket and empty it.”

“God Ethan, I didn’t know you knew how to do all that stuff.” She glances at me, her beautiful face radiating something deep and moving in the night.

I shrug off her compliment. “Ruined your car, babe,” I say as I exit the Jeep. I go to take the floor mat and the cute little piece of fabric she has wrapped around her seats, but she shushes me.

“You leave that to me and get yourself in a hot shower.” Then she swipes up Damian and we step inside. “Strip here,” she orders me, pointing to the floor. “I’ll take care of it tomorrow. Get in the shower while I empty the bucket.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I smile as I walk naked to the bathroom. A minute later, Grace slips inside the shower with me, needy and tempting, her nipples perky, her tongue darting out to lick her lips. She lathers me with soap and proceeds to scrub me, and I can’t help but laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“How serious you are.”

“You’re seriously dirty.”

“That why you came in the shower with me?” I ask, pulling her to me. “To make sure I was clean?”

“Well, that and…” She trails a hand between us and gives my dick a stroke.

“I see. Your motives aren’t entirely pure.”

“When it comes to you, my motives are always pure… and dirty.”

I throb at her words. “That so?”

“You know it,” she says, her smile small, her eyes pleading.

Fuck, but her look of uncertainty kills me each time. It’s like she’s unsure of my feelings when it comes to her. “Yeah, I know it, beautiful.” I kiss her tenderly. “Babe?”

“M-hm?” she says, moving her hips against me.

“How ‘bout I clean up, we dry off, and we take this to bed? I seen enough water for today. Wanna make love to you but wanna make it while I’m nice and dry.”

She pretends to whine, and her little noise goes straight to my groin.

“Can I please get a rain check on sex in the shower?”

She giggles. “You’re funny. Rain check.” She steps out the shower and wraps herself in a towel while I bring the temperature to piping hot. “You could also be a comedian if this whole army thing doesn’t pan out,” she says as she leaves the bathroom.

Army thing. Now who’s funny? But it’s the second time today Grace mentions alternative careers for me, and even if it’s a joke—her serious insistence that I go to Brussels, proof enough—it strikes a chord with me.

I finish scrubbing the mud away, and when I step out, she’s back in the bathroom, waiting for me with a thick, plush towel.

And she’s wearing my jersey.

I towel off, follow her to bed, and lay on top of her warm, soft body, making quick work of the jersey. She wraps her legs around my hips. “Just take me,” she whispers in my ear. “I can’t wait.”

Fuck.I get lost in the deliciousness that is Grace’s body. Grace’s kisses. Grace’s caresses. Grace’s moans. Grace’s love. How did I go ten years without her? No wonder I felt like a zombie, going day by day without any taste for life.

I flip us so that she rides me. I love seeing her take control of our lovemaking. Seeing her breasts bounce above me. Seeing her fall apart around me, her arms trembling, her knees barely carrying her, holding herself up by the sheer power of her orgasm, tensing up as I empty myself into her, then folding onto me and laying her sweet head on my chest.

I fall asleep still inside her, holding her snug against me, the physical exertion of the day feeling fucking great.

When I wake up the next day, my first thought is for the roof. I gently nudge Grace aside—we’re spooning—and go swap the buckets. The rain has stopped, and the sun is shining bright. On my way down, I get the coffee machine started and find Grace sitting up in bed, stretching. We take turns in the bathroom, and as I’m getting dressed, her phone rings. And rings again.

I ignore it and make the bed. The phone rings a third time, and I glance at the display, wondering if I should bring it to her in the bathroom. Maybe it’s her parents? Maybe there’s an emergency?

But the display reads Kyle.

Who’s Kyle? Maybe something to do with work?

Then the phone chimes again with a text message.

Kyle

Hey, honey, everything ok?