Chapter 24 #2
They were, after all, soaked themselves, he thought with another little inward laugh. Why not go with the overall mood?
He would have loved to just stay here, forever, in this moment with Cadence, but if he did so, it would cause her trouble down the line. And part of turning over a new leaf meant putting her needs ahead of his wants.
He sighed.
“I guess we’d better call a plumber.”
Cadence let her head rest against Tyler’s shoulder for just one more second.
But he was right. A plumber.
She had to deal with this, otherwise who even knew what kind of damage the water leak could do. And that would wreak havoc on her professional life… the one part of her life that wasn’t in a confounding sense of flux these past few months.
“Yeah,” she made herself say after that one extra second was up. “You’re right. Let me call Hank LeGrun. He does after hours.”
She queued up the number to the local plumber who did late night calls. Hank was semi-retired, and so he saved time for the evening and weekend needs so that his son, who had taken over most of his business, could keep his work to business hours.
In retrospect, Cadence should have waited for Hank’s son, who was incredibly reliable, to come out to do the initial fix. But his skill translated to a packed schedule, and she hadn’t wanted to wait.
Well, lesson learned.
“Hey, Hank,” she said when the man picked up on the first ring. “It’s Cadence Meadows. Sorry to call so late, but I’m over at the gallery and we’re… standing in a swimming pool.”
Hank tsked. “Well, that’s no good, huh?” He sounded completely unbothered by the late hour. “All right, let me get on my workin’ boots, and then I’ll be right over.”
“You’re the best, Hank,” she said before hanging up.
When she was off the call, Tyler gave her a teasing look. “Oh, Hank is the best? Here I am, drenched to my bones, but Hank…” He laughed when she gave him a playful shove.
“You’re the best too,” she told him. She found that she meant it. She didn’t know how she would have made it through this evening without him.
Tyler looked a little bashful. “Well, thank you, Cadence,” he said sweetly, which made her smile. He never had been very good at accepting legitimate compliments. He cleared his throat. “Should we do another sweep of the gallery to make sure that nothing is in danger of getting wet?”
So, that was what they did while they waited for Hank to arrive.
As it happened, their initial flurry had been reasonably effective.
They did find a few pieces that could be put in a somewhat safer location, but mostly things were all out of the danger zone, thank goodness.
Cadence would not have enjoyed having to tell any of the artists that their work had been destroyed due to a freak plumbing accident.
Hank arrived shortly thereafter, bearing hellos from his wife, Trudy. He took one look at the water, glanced up at the pipe, and said, “All right, then. I can fix this.”
Cadence felt her shoulders unclench a little.
“Thanks, Hank. I appreciate it.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it a bit, Miss Cadence,” he said. “I’ll get you fixed right up.”
As Hank began to work, Tyler pulled her aside. “Hey, Cadence, are you good to stay here alone for a bit?”
She felt a pang of disappointment. It wasn’t fair to ask him to stay with her all night, after all. He was probably tired, wanted to go home.
“Oh, yeah, of course,” she said.
“Okay, great,” he responded. He waved his cell phone.
“I just texted Martin, do you remember him? The guy I worked with on that big housing development project a few years back. Anyway, he has a wet vac and he said I could scoot over and borrow it. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes, tops.
I just thought it might not be good to leave all this puddled here all night. ”
Cadence’s disappointment vanished as soon as it has appeared, replaced with soaring happiness. He wasn’t trying to leave, although truly, she’d meant it when she’d thought that she wouldn’t blame him for it. He was trying to help. He was trying to show up for her.
She worried that she was grinning like a maniac at him. Far too excited a response for a wet vac.
“That would be amazing,” she said.
Luckily, Tyler wore a dopey grin too. It was so nice when they were on the same page.
It had been so long. And it felt just so, so good.
True to his word, Tyler was gone and back quickly, lugging a giant wet vac behind him. As Hank finished up, promising to send his son to follow up in a week or two, just to make sure his quick patch held, Cadence and Tyler began taking turns maneuvering the giant wet vac around the room.
“This is kind of fun, actually!” she shouted over the giant vacuum as she watched it slurp up the puddles.
By the second hour, and the fourth trip to dump the dirty water outside, she no longer found it quite so fun… even though Tyler was the one doing all the heavy lifting.
It took them a few more passes before things were as dry as they were going to get.
Cadence propped her hands on her hips and realized, with a flash, how late it had gotten.
Midnight had come and gone, and they were approaching one in the morning.
It had been five hours since Tyler had pulled into the parking lot and asked her to go grab a bite to eat.
“Oh my goodness, Ty!” she cried. “It’s so late. I can’t believe that I kept you here so long!”
He turned to give her a skeptical look, briefly abandoning his task of wrapping up the wet vac for transport.
“Cadence Meadows,” he said sternly. “Did you tie me to a pipe?”
She blinked. “Uh, no?”
“Did you hold me here at knifepoint?”
Her lips twitched. “No, I did not.”
He smacked his forehead like something had just occurred to him. “Oh. Then you must have threatened me with dire retribution if I left!”
“Okay, okay, I see what you’re saying,” she said, rolling her eyes playfully.
He crossed to her and put his hands on his shoulders. “You don’t have to apologize to me for being here for you,” he said, his tone shifting into seriousness in a flash. “And before you even start, you don’t have to thank me either. I want to be here for you.”
“What if I want to thank you?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Nice try. I see that you’re trying to build a loophole, but the committee has denied your request.”
She reached up and grasped his hand in hers. “Okay, well, then please just know that I am exceedingly appreciative, especially since I know that you have to be up so early for work in the morning.”
He did wince at that. “Yeah, okay, that’s not going to be fun, but I’ll grab an extra cup of coffee. I’ll be fine. It won’t be worse than when Izzy was up all hours every night.”
“Fair enough.” Those years had been tough.
“And,” he continued, “after I’m done working, I’ll come by to help finish the cleanup.” When she opened her mouth, he placed a finger over her lips. “No arguments, Cadence.”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “Thank you.”
“Hm, sneaking that loophole in. Very slick, Meadows. Okay, okay. If I don’t head out of here now, I’m never going to get gone.” He leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek.
Cadence wished very much that it had been more.
“Bye. See you tomorrow.”
That part, she liked.
“See you tomorrow, Cadence,” he said. He seemed as though he enjoyed the words as much as she did.
After he left, pausing to shoot her a wave before he climbed up into his truck, Cadence pressed her hands to her chest as her eyes filled with tears.
Tonight had been a real indication of Tyler walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
He had been patient, selfish, intentional.
He’d acted all the ways he said he had wanted to act.
And this had confirmed something she’d been suspecting for a while now.
She wanted to give him another chance. She truly, truly did.