Page 13 of A Brambleberry Summer

Lightning flashed again, and in that burst of light, she could see she was right. The garden shed door was wide open.

As much as she didn’t want to go out into the rain, she couldn’t let the banging continue all night, for her tenants’ sake, as well as to protect the contents of the shed.

Rosa threw on her rain boots and coat and found a flashlight, then hurried down the stairs.

When she reached the bottom step, the door to the ground-floor apartment swung open suddenly. Startled, she almost stumbled but caught herself just in time.

Wyatt stood there, silhouetted by the light coming from inside the apartment. He looked rumbled and gorgeous, his hair messy as if he had been dozing.

He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and was barefoot. Through the open doorway, she could see a television on inside with a baseball game playing.

Logan was nowhere in sight, which led her to believe he must be sleeping.

Her mouth felt dry suddenly and Rosa had to grip the railing of the stairs to keep her balance.

Ridiculous. What waswrongwith her?

“Sounds like trouble out there.”

She nodded. “Nothing major. I believe it is the door to the garden shed. It is not latching the way it should.”

“You’re not going out in that, are you? Some of those lightning strikes seem close. That’s nothing to mess around with.”

“I know. But I cannot let it bang all night to disturb everyone.”

He gave her a long look, then nodded. “Give me a moment to throw on some shoes, then I’ll come with you.”

“That is not necessary,” she protested. “I can wedge it closed with a rock if I can’t fix it.”

“Wait. I’ll only be a minute.”

She really could handle it by herself, but didn’t want to be rude so she waited. A few moments later, he returned wearing tennis shoes and a raincoat with a Cannon Beach Police Department logo.

Together they walked out of the house. The temperature had cooled down considerably. Rosa shivered a little at the wet wind that blew through the porch.

Her eagle-eyed neighbor didn’t miss her reaction. “I can handle this, if you want to stay here on the porch, where it’s dry.”

She shook her head. “Youshould stay here where it’s dry. Taking care of the house is my responsibility.”

“Fine. We’ll both go.”

She pulled up her hood and hurried down the steps toward the garden shed.

When they reached it, she was grateful for his help. The door was heavy and the wind made it hard to move. She wasn’t sure she could have wrestled it on her own.

“I don’t think you’re going to be able to fix the latch tonight. Where’s the rock you were talking about so we can keep it closed until the weather is a little better?”

“I will have to find something.”

Lightning flashed again, followed almost immediately by thunder. It was one thing to enjoy the storm from the comfort of her easy chair. It was something else to be out in the middle of it, with the wind whipping raindrops hard at her face.

She fumbled to turn on the light inside the shed. Wyatt joined her in the small space and she was instantly aware of him. He smelled delicious, some sort of masculine scent that reminded her of the mountains around Moose Gulch, covered in sagebrush and pine.

His gaze landed on a heavy concrete block. “That should do it for now.”

He reached down to pick it up and brushed against her. Rosa quickly took a step back, though there wasn’t much room to escape.

He didn’t appear to notice, much to her relief.

---