Chapter 49
SLIP instead, she’s being a whiny diva.
“Cara, just go to my house. You want to be helpful? Please go before I have a heart attack.”
“I’ll take her and come back,” her husband Manny replies.
“Oye, why doesn’t Nellie take her instead?
That way, you can put those muscles of yours to work,” Gus, his twin and Nellie’s fiancé, says.
It helps that half these people are business owners and can jump out of work like this.
I rarely ask for help unless it’s completely necessary because of moments like this, days like today, where there’s no way I would make it without them.
“I have muscles,” Nellie mentions, but Gus wraps her in his arms.
“Yes, but for my heart, I need you to go. I could actually be the one having a heart attack.” Gus and his jokes about his heart condition piss Nellie off to no end. He raises his hands. “My bad, my bad. Go, please. Be trouble somewhere else. Please.”
“Fine. Let’s go, preggies,” she tells her sister with a pout, and they finally leave. I take a deep breath for the first time since she got here. The floor is wet, and although we found the leak and have contained it in a bucket, she could still fall.
I need to save as much as I can. We’re putting books into totes to take to my living room until I can repair everything. The shelves have to come out—if I can salvage them—and so many things from my desk too. It’s a little overwhelming when I think about it all.
Who am I kidding? It’s actually very overwhelming.
“Sorry, we’re closed!” Jake shouts, and when I look up, I wonder for a second if I’m seeing right. Because standing there, dumbfounded, is Holden.
“I was bringing you lunch,” he mutters, setting the bag on the table we moved outside and stepping in, looking around the flooded space.
“I’m calling for reinforcements,” he adds, grabbing his phone and texting quickly before heading to Jake and offering him his hand. “My name is Holden. Nice to meet you.”
Jake narrows his eyes before shaking his hand.
I don’t even know how to introduce him. My boyfriend?
Is he my boyfriend? Even after the conversation last night?
Is he a friend I’ve had sex with in the supply closet?
I may not be sure of much, but I’m sure he’s the man I’ve fallen in love with, even if I’m lying to myself about it.
But I can’t say that the first time my friends meet him.
“Jake.” They shake hands, and Holden gets to work, falling in place with the rest of the boys.
They’re all here, except Santiago. He and Roe are at the opening weekend of their favorite race event.
They might not race anymore, but they’re still part of the community.
We pack books, bookmarks, stickers, and as many paper products as we can.
We're so lost in the process, I almost miss the group of people who show up suddenly.
Four men, all huge, just like Holden. Wait, one of them is—
“What are you doing here?” Alex asks Mateo, his brother-in-law.
Mateo, Livie’s brother, points at Holden. “That’s my best friend. What are you doing here?”
Alex points to me. “That’s one of my best friends.”
“Oh shit.” A guy laughs. He’s wearing shorts that hit him mid-thigh with tall garden boots and a hot pink comb headband keeping his long hair back. “Are you her? His dream girl?”
I turn to Holden, trying to find the answers.
“Wait, I know your name… It was, um, Nicole? No, not Nicole. Natalie! It was Natalie!”
“What if you said a name that’s not mine, and I was mad?
” I tease. Even though I haven’t even met him, he seems like a guy you need to set straight from the beginning.
There are some whispered cusses, a low grumbly laugh, and the guy in question, who I’m guessing is Aspen, judging by one of the conversations I had with Holden, flinches.
“Well, isn’t that your name?”
I nod. “It is. Nice to meet you.”
“Less talking and more working,” Holden commands. There are quick introductions, and Jake, who self-appointed himself as the organizer, gives instructions to salvage what they can.
Some of the guys leave, coming back half an hour later with a ton of towels and start drying the spots we didn’t get to.
They also brought extra totes so we can continue packing things.
I had to stop helping to make calls to see if I can get someone out here ASAP to file an insurance claim and get the ball rolling.
“Any luck? Holden asks, smiling but keeping his distance. It feels like no time has passed, but it’s been hours, and there’s nobody available to come and assess the damage. All our friends are still carrying things outside in between little jokes here and there.
“Nope. These are the moments when I really don’t love small towns.” What am I going to do? Losing a day’s worth of sales is bad enough; this might take days, if not a week.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He tilts his head. “Natalie, come on. I know you. What’s wrong?” he whispers this time.
There’s so much tension between us still; I can’t not tell him. That should be indication enough of how much I feel for this man. “This is going to be devastating for my business, Holden. I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back from this.”
“What’s the hold up?”
“Nobody’s available, so they said they can come inspect tomorrow, but then that’s another day lost. I can’t continue losing business, or I might have to close the doors here forever. I have insurance, but that takes so long. I’m just…”
He places his hand on my shoulder. “I might know someone. Let me make a call.”
Fifteen minutes later, a hunched-over man with salt and pepper hair, a pen behind his ear, walks in, awkwardly standing by Holden, taking a look around but not uttering a word. Their body language speaks volumes, even if I can’t hear a word they’re saying.
“Hey, Natalie. This is Jerry.” Oh shit. “My dad.”
Jerry extends his hand, which I take in a gentle shake. “Nice to meet you, young lady. It seems you have yourself a problem here.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Let me take a good look around and get some readings. I’ll come right back to you.”
“No problem. It’s all yours.” Jerry walks around with a clipboard in hand and a little black machine that beeps as he places it on the walls. His eyebrows furrow at whatever he’s reading, but he continues with the next wall.
“Your dad?” I ask Holden, who’s eying him too.
“He, um, he used to be a contractor and reinstated his license recently. I don’t know if he can fix water damage by himself, but he knows people.
He said he would be happy to help, and now, well, he’s here.
” We watch him disappear behind a wall. “Small town and all.” Ah, my usual phrase used against me.
“You didn’t have to do that. I can’t imagine how hard that was.”
“What?” he asks, as if he truly has no clue what I’m referring to.
“Calling your dad for help.”
His eyes gleam as a genuine smile lights up his face.
“Natalie, there’s very little I wouldn’t do for you.
” The words are heavier than my worries—which says a lot—dangling in front of us with a balance tilting heavily on my side.
Why can’t I stop pushing this man away, even if my heart is screaming at me to do the opposite?
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Jerry interrupts my spiraling thoughts. “But you were right in wanting someone to come in today. Water damage and remediation has an unseen clock that can end very differently with passing every hour. Are you going through insurance for this?”
I didn’t even think about that, but yes. I can’t pay for something like this out of pocket. “Yes.”
“I need the information, and I can call a guy to bring some dehumidifiers. How early can you be here tomorrow?”
Um.
“I can be here, if needed, before Natalie can,” Holden rushes to answer, and my brows raise.
“Anytime. Just tell me when.” I swipe through my phone until the insurance information fills up the screen, and I hand it to Jerry.
He squints, scribbling the policy number onto a frayed notepad on his clipboard before turning on his heel.
The door shuts behind him, leaving only his muffled voice as he paces with the phone pressed tight to his ear.
“What about your girls?” Holden asks.
“What about them?”
“If he needs you here earlier. They have school tomorrow, right? I can be here.”
“You’ve done enough.”
He’s trying to play it cool, but the subtle tension between us? It’s growing by the second. We didn’t leave things very well last night, and we need to talk, but when? There’s been no time.
He brushes a hand through his messy hair.
“We still need to talk, Natalie, but why won’t you let me help?
” His voice is soft, but the concern in his eyes is as obvious as the dark circles under mine.
He looks better than he probably feels, dressed in a faded navy shirt and shorts, his sleeves rolled up to his arms the way I like so much, his hair perfect but tousled.
He’s been hauling boxes, checking the leak, and now, he’s here offering to help more.
“I’m fine.”
“Are you though?” he asks, searching for true honesty.
“Yeah, I think so. I mean, I’m not great, but…I’m not drowning either.” I give him a weak smile, wiping my face with the back of my hand. “You’re a lifesaver, though. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
“Then let me help if you need it, okay?”