AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m house-sitting for the Mitchells,” Colby said.
“Right. Where are they again?”
“Scotland. They’ll be back in a few weeks.”
The conversation turned back to the tree and the hurricane. Nate wandered around to the guys with chainsaws, helping drag some of the big branches out of the road. Colby watched the muscles in his arms flex under the thin T-shirt he wore. This was one thing that she was getting used to about him that had changed. He was pretty thin back then. Scrawny, even. Colby wasn’t one of those girls who swooned at the sight of muscles, but the way Nate filled out looked good on him.
“Are they going to cut the whole thing down?” Colby asked.
“Crews will start trolling the neighborhood as soon as the streets clear a bit more. They’ll charge like $150-200 per tree. It’s a racket. We figured we’d all help each other and avoid that. Nice of your husband to help.”
“Oh he’s not…” Colby started, but the women started talking about insurance claims. It didn’t matter what they thought anyway. Maybe better if they thought she and Nate were married since he was staying there.
Nate dragged a big branch over to her and shook it at her. Water droplets sprayed over her. Colby squealed. “Nate!”
“Oh, sorry. You looked a little dry.” He grinned and dropped the branch in the pile. “I’m going to hang out here and help for a while. It feels good to be outside and moving. You okay?”
She nodded. “I think I’ll start picking up the debris in Liz’s yard and then see if I can help the neighbors right next door. I’ll catch up with you a bit later. Lunch sounds good soon. Can I use the camping stove?”
“Of course! Use anything you want.”
Nate waved and jogged back over with the other men to work at the tree. Colby picked her way back through the debris on lawns, noting how so many of the trees looked much emptier than they had the day before. Houston didn’t really have fall the way that Virginia did. A lot of trees never lost their leaves, but those that did generally lost them in late November. Maple trees liked to wait until December when they would flame red and yellow as though decorating themselves for Christmas.
The water had receded more, which should have made Colby happy. But she didn’t want to be un-stranded yet. The thought of Nate leaving made her chest ache. She wasn’t ready for him to go. Not yet.
* * *
The power still hadn’t come back on by that evening, but Nate was glad the gas still worked. He needed a hot shower in the worst way after spending the day clearing out yards up and down the street. The inside of the house was a little warm, but not so much that they were sweating. The temperatures had just been low enough outside to keep it from being miserable.
After helping with the big tree, Nate got the screwdriver out and convinced Colby to help him take down the plywood. They stacked it back in the garage along with the concrete screws. You couldn’t see the holes in the brick exterior unless you were right up on it. Nate wondered if there was some kind of filler to hide them, but he didn’t see anything like that in the garage and didn’t want to mess up the house, so he left them.
They ate ramen noodles by candlelight for dinner, a funny pairing. Colby added a few things she found in the fridge and even soft-boiled eggs in a pot on the camping stove to add, elevating the forty-cent packages of ramen noodles to something much more like the expensive restaurant ramen. He wondered what else she could make. For a moment, he allowed himself the indulgence of thinking about sharing a house with her, making meals and washing dishes together.
It was still funny to eat by candlelight in their pajamas. Once it got dark, with only candles and flashlights and no electronics, it would be an early night. Neither had slept much the night before and Colby was yawning again like she had the night before while he was working on her site.
Nate checked the front yard after dinner and realized with a sinking feeling that the roads were passable right now. Would she ask him to leave if she knew? He wanted more time. One more night to let things unfold between them as they seemed to be. One more night to gather up the courage he needed to tell her about his anxiety.
After they’d washed the dishes, Nate told Colby to sit at the counter. “You made lunch and dinner. I’ve got a treat for dessert.”
Her eyes lit up and she sat wiggling on her bar stool, waiting. “Close your eyes for a sec,” he said. She covered her eyes with both hands, giggling. He grinned. She was adorable.
He pulled a Hershey bar, a bag of marshmallows, and a box of graham crackers from the pantry. He’d seen them in there when they had been checking out the food situation the day before. But if Colby saw them, she’d know exactly what he was making and he wanted the surprise.
“Keep them closed. No peeking!”
The camping stove unfolded so that the top stood up, blocking the view of the burners from Colby. He situated the ingredients so they would be hidden as well. “Okay, you can open them now.”
“Is it ready?” she asked. Her eyes were bright, her dimple flashing. This made him want to set up surprises for her every day for the rest of her life, just to see this look.
“No, but you can look. Give me like four minutes,” Nate said.
He lit the burner and used a fork to toast the marshmallows. While they were toasting, he set graham crackers with chocolate squares on the other burner, so the chocolate would get a little melty just by proximity to the flames. He tried to make sure everything was happening behind the stove where she couldn’t see it.
He glanced up at Colby. She was leaning forward on the counter, eyes bright as she watched him. “You’re making me nervous,” he said. “I’m going to burn myself.”
“You were a Boy Scout. I think you can handle yourself around a camping stove. If not, they may need to take back that Eagle Scout award.”
“Good point,” he said. “Did you ever go camping? Or were you not the outdoorsy type?”
