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He nodded.
“Why don’t you wait right here?” He stood up. “I’m going to go talk to the front desk.”
I waved him to sit back down. “Yeah, we should do that. But since it’s my stuff, why don’t you let me do it?” I stood up now. “Besides, I’m not sure how to work that heater. If it gets too hot in here, you’d be better at being able to turn it off. I don’t see a switch, exactly.”
He was about to say something but nodded slowly instead.
“That’s a fair point. It is a little hard to work if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ll stay here with the heater.” He sat back down on the floor. “I wish I had something else I could do in the meantime, but perhaps my phone’s data will work now that the storm isn’t flying around us.”
I smiled a little. That was a good idea. If his data worked, there was a good chance mine worked, too. At least, if we got into the room, I could tell my family I was safe that way.
Without another word, I grabbed one of the keycards to his room, and then the one I had that was supposed to go to my room. I walked down the hallway quietly, trying to keep my head from spinning in every direction. There was a good chance that Gabe Delaney and I were going to be stuck in the same room again tonight. I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted.
While it had been amazing to be able to sleep last night, I didn’t know that it would be any more conducive to what we needed if we shared the room one more night.
“Excuse me,” I said upon reaching the front desk. There was a different clerk, so I had to reexplain my situation. “I’m supposed to be in this room,” here I held out the key for my room, “but the storm knocked the power out before it could be reprogrammed. Is there any way we can get into the room without the key card? Or do I have to wait for my luggage to be available until the power comes back on?”
“Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait until the power comes back on,” the young man said after confirming the key was for the right room. “We can’t pick these locks, and all the actual keyed locks are used on the employee-only rooms to make it harder for those to be inaccessible in a situation like this. My apologies, ma’am.”
“Thank you for the information. Do you happen to know when the power is supposed to come back on?”
“I do not,” he said. “The power company estimates within the next day or two, but they can’t be sure. The storm took out a few of the power lines, and they’re struggling to get to all the places that need repairs.”
I nodded slowly. At least they were trying to do it safely. I didn’t want to be the jerk who demanded they get it done sooner, whatever the cost. Instead, I returned to the room I was sharing with Gabe.
The heater still churned on the floor by the bathroom, but I could feel the heat from the bed, finally.
“The power is supposed to come on any time within the next day or two, but that’s all I could get,” I told Gabe. “They can’t pick the lock, unfortunately.”
“Well, then, go take a shower. Hopefully there’s enough power left in the generator to heat some water,” he said as he motioned to the bag. “Find a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. I’ll shower after.”’
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, Grace. We can do laundry in Corinth if I run out of clean clothes. I always have laundry detergent sheets in my bag in case of emergency.”
I nodded, and then got ready to go shower.
Chapter fifteen
Gabe
After we had both showered, Grace positioned herself on the bed so that the blankets were pulled up around her shoulders. This left only her head exposed. Her red hair was quite wet, leaving it a deeper color. I imagined that the more it dried, the more it would return to that vibrant scarlet. It brought out her eyes, which still sparkled with excitement, despite the setbacks that had come on this trip.
All in all, she looked even more like a dreamer than usual.
“Gabe, why are you staring at me like that?” Grace’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
I cleared my throat, trying to find the words to say something. After all, it was now or never, right? We had nothing but time until the power came on. Besides, once our flight plan was approved, we could go to the front desk and make a special plea to get in through the window of the room Grace had been given to get her stuff if the power wasn’t back yet.
“Well, Grace…” I cleared my throat. Why was this so hard to say out loud? “I guess I just want to tell you that you’re beautiful. That’s all.”
It was Grace’s turn to blush. I watched as her cheeks turned first a light pink color, and then slowly turned a dark red color, something resembling a brick.
“That’s very sweet of you, Gabe,” she managed to say.
She moved around in the blankets, eventually moving so that she was sitting up. Then, what surprised me most was that she patted the bed beside her for me to move up there. I grabbed one of the multiple blankets sitting on top of me and moved to where she had made room for me.
The heater was doing its job, but I didn’t think it would be strong enough to warm the room tonight on its own. I must not have gotten it charged up enough to be able to handle that before this trip. We could always plug it in if we needed to.
