Page 30 of Summer with the Single Dad

The water pressure was stronger than she anticipated and she was sopping wet in seconds. But she couldn’t reach the shut off.

Not knowing what else to do, she ran out of the cabin, leaving the door open and water pouring out onto the porch, and headed for Bennett’s office.

She didn’t even bother to knock and just shoved the door open.

He was at his desk, hunched over a bunch of spreadsheets with the bartender from her first night there. Dom was his name, if she remembered correctly.

Both men looked up at her in surprise. Bennett surged to his feet, panic in his blue eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“My cabin has flooded. A water main, I think.”

Dom was on his feet too, and both men raced after her, then passed her as they jogged to her cabin. Bennett entered the place first, cursing under his breath over and over again. He made it to the bathroom and was soaked just as quickly as she’d been. Only, he didn’t let the water pressure stop him and he grunted as he reached behind the toilet to the shut-off handle.

And then it stopped.

The water stopped gushing, and only the sound of their heavy breathing and the random drips all around the house filled the air.

Devastation was painted all across his handsome face as he stood up to his full height, but he looked past her to Dom, who stood behind her.

Dom was stricken, but not nearly as much as Bennett. The man looked like he could either cry, vomit, or strangle someone.

All she wanted to do was hug him. Take away his pain.

Then it hit her.

This was her cabin, and it was unlivable. Now what?

She wasn’t ready to go. She hadn’t done what she came here to do, which was figure out the next step in her life. Figure out how to move past the crippling guilt.

She didn’t want to leave the island.

She didn’t want to leave Bennett.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Well, the place is insured so it’s not that big of a deal, right?” Dom asked as he, Bennett, Wyatt, and Clint all stood outside cabin five. Jagger was off … somewhere. “We’ll just get an adjustor and contractors in here and it’ll be fixed in no time.”

Bennett blinked and huffed out an exasperated breath before dragging his hand down his damp face. He was soaked to the bone, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment. “We’re on an island. This isn’t the big city where adjustors are as common as Starbucks. The same for contractors. It’s also summer, which is construction season. I highly doubt we would want a restoration company that has an empty schedule. And …” He swallowed because he was loath to tell them this next part. Because this next part was his fault. It was a tough decision to make when he did it at the time, but it was also a necessary one. He never dreamed they’d have such a big problem. He figured he’d fix it next year when they were in a more stable financial situation. “Our deductible is ten grand.”

“What?” Clint blurted out. “Since when?”

“Since our insurance came up for renewal a few months ago. It was the only way to keep down our premium. Everything has gone up. I keep telling you guys that. So, in order to keep our premium at an affordable level, I took the gamble and changed our premium from two grand, to ten.” He shoved his fingers into his hair. “I never anticipated something like this happening. We’re so meticulous with the cabins and their maintenance.”

“So … what now? We weigh the cost of the deductible versus not putting in a claim and do it ourselves?” Dom asked. “I don’t have time to be doing restorations. I mean I can. We all can, but none of us have time. That’s a fuck-ton of damage in there.”

“Not to mention the loss of revenue from the rental since we’ll have to refund the guest her money,” Clint added.

Bennett hadn’t even thought about Justine leaving because of this. A sick swirling sensation formed in his gut and he pushed down the burn of bile on the back of his tongue.

Justine was in the cabin checking to see what of her belongings had been damaged. Even though it was pandemonium when she came to get him in his office and tell him about the flood, he was still a virile male extremely attracted to her. So his reaction to her soaking wet, white T-shirt and the way it clung to her frame and highlighted the yellow bikini top beneath it, did not elude him. He stuffed that into the back of his mind for later.

It was the thought of her wet and sexy as fuck that prompted him to blurt out, “She can stay with me.”

“What?” Clint exclaimed.

Wyatt and Dom looked at him like he was crazy.

Because clearly, he was.

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