Page 31 of Searching for Sunshine

She smiles brightly, nodding her head. “Oh my, no wonder you two look so smitten. You two are still in your honeymoon phase. Congratulations.”

‘Thanks,” I tell her, feeling more uncomfortable the longer I stand here.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to keep you. I’m a wedding planner and I just get so giddy watching couples like you. Love is such a beautiful thing,” she says, hiccuping before reaching down to grab one of the seltzers I helped Stella ice down earlier and taking a long sip.

“All right, well, enjoy the rest of your night,” I respond, before heading down the path to the cottage in an effort to get away from the turn our conversation had taken. Clearly, she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about, because Stella and I are just friends.

CHAPTER 16

WYATT

Imake it to the cottage and push open the door, looking forward to drinking a beer and relaxing on the couch until Stella comes home.

“Hey, Duke,” I call out, looking around the room for him. “Come here, bud,” I yell, trying not to panic.

I swear to god, if this dog managed to get out… I think just as Duke runs out of my bedroom.

“Oh thank fuck, Duke, I’ve been calling for you,” I say in relief as I bend down to pet him. “Wait, why the hell are you wet?”

He looks at me, then turns and walks back toward my bathroom slowly, like he’s waiting for me to follow him. “What the hell is going—” I start, but pause when I see the sight of my bedroom. Water is pouring out of the wall and there are at least several inches of water soaking into the carpet and trickling out into the hallway.

“Holy shit,” I murmur. “Where the fuck is the shut-off valve in this damn place?”

Duke looks at me for a second before running over to play in the water shooting out of the wall.

“Damn it.” I sigh, running back outside and looking for the valve to turn the water off, but it’s so dark, it’s almost impossibleto find. After a few minutes of searching, I finally find it, twisting it as fast as I can to make sure the water is completely off.

“God, this damn cottage is going to be the death of me,” I murmur, pulling out my phone. Before I text Stella, I text the local plumber, Bobby, and ask him to put us at the top of his schedule to fix the leak. After that’s done, I also look up the number for a local restoration business and leave them a message asking them to call me back in the morning.

Deciding I can’t put it off any longer, I open Stella’s contact and type out a quick text. I would prefer not to bother her since I know how important this weekend is, but I know if she comes in and finds out I didn’t tell her, she’ll be super pissed at me.

Wyatt: Hey, so…I know you’re still working, but I just wanted to let you know there was a minor incident at the cottage.

Wyatt: Don’t panic.

Wyatt: I have everything under control.

Stella: The fact that you told me not to panic means I’m definitely VERY panicked.

Stella: What happened?

Wyatt: I promise it’ll be fine.

Wyatt: The pipe in the bathroom burst. And it kinda flooded my bedroom.

Wyatt: And we won’t have water for at least the next few hours.

Stella: …

Stella: Wyatt, I don’t think you know the definition of MINOR!

Stella: Oh my god, what the hell are we going to do?

Wyatt: It’ll be fine. I’ve already texted Bobby and I left a message with a restoration company to come help us get the water cleaned up.

Stella: Who the hell is Bobby?

Stella: New rule: when we’re in the middle of a major incident, let’s normalize using full names and titles please.

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