26. Miles
MILES
I t’s well after midnight, and I’m lying in Jenna’s bed wide-awake.
It’s comfortable, with a white wooden frame fit for a young girl.
The mattress, as I understand it, was hardly slept on all those years ago.
Neutral seashore decor hangs on the walls.
The room might be any other arbitrary bedroom in a beach house.
But it’s not. It’s Jenna’s room and I can’t stop marveling at the fact that she’s lying on my chest, her legs intertwined through mine, sleeping comfortably.
The soft sounds of her peaceful breathing, the rain outside softly pelting the windowpane, and the incredible orgasm I just had with the woman of my dreams should have put me into a deep, unwavering slumber.
Instead, I’m lost in thought. I can’t stop thinking about Jenna and how she ended up here with me.
Not only that but after my conversation with my mom, I haven’t stopped thinking about the day my life was saved at the cost of another.
Something shifted between Jenna and me tonight, what I feel for her is bigger than anything I’ve ever known.
I can’t explain it, but I feel connected to her in a way that has nothing to do with how we met.
I’m also almost positive that I’m falling head over heels, completely in love with her.
The way she dashed into my life and altered everything I thought I knew about love.
The way she doesn’t want to be saved, yet all I want to do is save her, or at the very least, hold her hand through the hard stuff.
I sigh, and Jenna shifts in her sleep, her eyelids fluttering open. “Why aren’t you sleeping?” she yawns. “I thought I would have tired you out.”
“I can’t sleep,” I say quietly, stroking her jaw.
“I’m sorry I disturbed you. Go back to sleep,” I whisper.
I stroke her brown hair and Jenna’s eyes close again.
My heart constricts. I can’t believe that I’m the one who is lying with her right now.
I inch my way down and pull her closer to me.
I close my eyes, knowing this is a moment I’ll remember forever.
Just as I start to drift off, a large crash startles us both.
Jenna sits up, instantly alert. “What was that?” The fear in her eyes makes me hurl myself out of bed faster than a surfboard sale.
“I’ll go scope it out. Stay here,” I tell her, pulling gym shorts from my bag.
“Miles, what if it’s an intruder?” Jenna pulls the covers up over her bare chest.
I push my lips together, watching fear cloud her beautiful features. “Just stay here with Pete,” I repeat.
I dash down the stairs, poking my head in all the front rooms. I find nothing out of place. I venture down the short hallway to the kitchen—and that’s when I see it. And it’s going to drastically alter Jenna’s plans.
“Uh…Jenna?” I call. “I think you’d better come down here.”
A moment later, I hear her padding down the stairs and then she’s at the entrance to the kitchen, wearing my black T-shirt from earlier, Pete at her heels. I’m momentarily distracted by the sight of her, but her shriek brings me right back.
“Oh. My. God,” Jenna cries. The ceiling in the kitchen is…
gone . It collapsed, likely from the heavy rain.
Wet plaster and drywall cover most of the kitchen floor, and there is a gaping hole in the ceiling.
Other parts of the ceiling sag under the weight of the water, telling me that the saturation is extensive. “What the fuck happened?”
“Danny did say you needed a new roof,” I start slowly. “Looks like the damage is worse than we anticipated.” I pull Jenna into a hug. “It’s going to be okay.” I rub her back.
“How, Miles? How is this going to be okay?” She pushes away from me and covers her forehead with her hand, pacing around the only part of the floor that isn’t covered in wet plaster.
“I’m not sure at the moment,” I admit awkwardly. “But we will figure it out. I’m here for you.” I inhale sharply and look around the room. “This is some clean up.”
“Yeah. You think?” Jenna retorts, batting at her tear-filled eyes. “This house is such a fucking money pit. I just want to sell it as is and run away.”
Selfish fear fills my chest and comes up like bile. I swallow hard, willing myself to calm down. “You don’t mean that,” I say, my voice hoarse.
“I might,” Jenna huffs. Then, her face crumbles, and she walks over to me, falling into my arms. Her back shakes with big heaving sobs.
“Shh.” I stroke her back. “It’s going to be okay. We will figure this out tomorrow, I promise.”
“We have to stop the leaking now,” Jenna wails. “I’m so tired.”
I nod, tucking her head under my chin. “You’re right. Do you have any buckets?”
“There are two in the laundry room. And a couple of pots in the cabinet.” She gestures to the kitchen cabinet on the other side of the mess. Her expression crumples again and a new round of tears begin to fall.
“Okay, okay.” I wrap my arms around her and lead her out of the kitchen and over to the couch. “You rest here. I’ll take care of the leaks.”
Jenna sniffles, shaking her head. “No, I have to help.”
I tip her chin up so she looks my way. “No, you don’t. You lie down. I’ve got this.”
“Are you sure?” she asks, but she’s already snuggling into the couch, eyes threatening to close.
“I’m positive,” I say, passing her the blanket that’s draped over the back.
“Thank you, Miles,” Jenna says sleepily, settling in the fetal position with the blanket around her.
I pat her leg and then I get to work, putting buckets and pots around the room where there is active dripping.
Then, while I’m at it, I take the big pieces of drywall out to the trash, grab some old beach towels from the laundry room, and sop up as much of the water as I can.
I’ll need a shop vac in the morning though for sure.
“Oh man,” I say aloud, walking back toward Jenna.
When I reach her, she’s curled up under the blanket, sleeping peacefully. She looks so beautiful, I can’t resist staring at her for a few moments before scooping her up and carrying her back up to bed. I will fix this for her, and for the first time since we’ve met, I actually think she wants that.
I toss and turn before eventually falling into a fitful sleep. It doesn’t last long though and I’m awake early. I let Jenna sleep and sneak out of her room to survey the damage from last night in the daylight and maybe call Danny.
It’s worse than I thought. The kitchen doesn’t have a floor above it, so the hole in the ceiling directly exposes the sky.
I’m sure we can get on the roof and tarp it, but with the weather getting colder, it might be a good idea if Jenna stayed somewhere else.
With me. That may be wishful thinking though.
I pull out my phone and take some photos of the damage, quickly sending them off to Danny. He calls me immediately.
“What the fuck happened?” he says when I answer the phone.
“Uh…the roof caved in,” I say, as if it couldn’t be more obvious. “You said she needed a new roof.”
“Dammit. Well, now she definitely needs one. And fast.” Danny groans like he’s suddenly awake.
“Are you still in bed?” I scoff, running my fingers through my hair.
“Yeah, man. The party went late,” Danny grumbles. “What do you need from me?”
“Let me FaceTime you and then maybe you can tell me the answer to that.” I hit the video call button. Danny picks up, lying shirtless in his bed with his wife, Kristen, who’s snoozing next to him.
“Miles, what the fuck!” she moans when she hears the call and opens her eyes.
“Sorry, Kris, this is an emergency,” I say, flipping the camera around to show Danny.
Danny whistles low. “That’s a lot of water damage.”
“Yeah. Can I borrow your shop vac?” I ask.
Danny gets out of bed, taking his phone with him “I’ll be right there,” he says, as if all of a sudden he sees the urgency.
“Thanks, man,” I say, hanging up.
By the time Jenna gets up, Danny and I have cleaned most of the mess.
We emptied the water-filled buckets, picked up the stray pieces of plaster, and shop-vac’d the floor, which is what I suspect woke her up.
We set box fans up to dry out the area as quickly as possible.
I’m running a mop over the crusty linoleum when she pads downstairs.
“Miles, you did all of this without me,” she says, but it’s not a question. She actually sounds touched.
“With Danny’s help,” I say, turning to her and gesturing at Danny in the backyard, carrying black garbage bags of debris.
Jenna’s eyes glisten and she sniffles. “Miles. That’s so nice,” she whimpers, and I’m afraid she’s going to start crying again. Instead, she pulls me into a hug. “Thank you,” she murmurs into my chest.
I kiss the top of her head. “It’s nothing,” I say. “I told you—I’m an early riser.”
Danny interrupts us when he comes inside.
“Jenna.” He nods in greeting. She’s still only wearing my black T-shirt, the bottom of it barely skimming her thighs.
She tugs at the hem and scootches behind me to hide her exposed legs.
A slow smirk tugs at my lips. Danny notices, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Hi, Danny. Thank you so much for helping Miles.” She peeks around my side, her hands settling at my waist. “I’d hug you but…I wasn’t expecting company.” She lets out an embarrassed giggle.
“Don’t mention it,” Danny says with a chuckle.
“But I don’t think you should stay here.
I will call my roofing guys today, but I’m honestly not sure how quickly they will be able to get out here.
In the meantime, I am going to nail a waterproof tarp to the roof to hopefully prevent any more damage. ”
Jenna’s brow furrows, but she only nods.
Danny turns to me. “I have some tarps in my shed. I’m going to grab them, then you can help me nail them on.”
“Sure. Yeah, of course,” I reply, nodding. “Thanks, buddy.”
Danny nods and walks toward the door. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes, so if you’re gonna get freaky, you better do it now.” He chortles at his own joke and then he’s gone.
I turn to face her and Jenna and I stare at each other for a moment before I pull her into another hug. “What am I going to do?” she mumbles.
I tip her chin up, guiding her gaze to mine. “Do you want to be rescued?” I whisper, fighting back the twitch of my lips. “I know you can take care of yourself but…”
Jenna bites back a smile and casts her gaze on my mouth. “It might be nice to have some help with this,” she murmurs.
“Is that a yes? You want me to white knight you?” I tease.
“Miles.” Jenna rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling.
“I need you to say it,” I say emphatically. “Say, ‘Miles, I want you to rescue me.’ That way, you can’t come back at me later for this.”
“I’m not going to come back at—” Jenna drops her arms exasperatedly.
“Ah, ah.” I interrupt, wagging my finger at her. “Say it.”
Jenna huffs. “Fine. Miles, I want you to rescue me.”
I pull her closer to me again. “That doesn’t sound very enthusiastic,” I rasp, cupping her cheek. She nuzzles my hand, closing her eyes and melting into my touch.
“Miles,” Jenna murmurs.
“Yes?” I ask, grinning.
“Please, rescue me. Please do all the hard things and make all the phone calls I don’t want to make.” Her voice catches and it causes my chest to tighten.
I take her hand, pulling her into me and wrapping my arms around her. “It would be my pleasure,” I whisper in her ear. “On one condition.”
Jenna pulls back and looks up at me, her eyes questioning. “What’s that?”
“Can we go surfing after this?”
Jenna lets out a peal of laughter. “Absolutely.”