Page 12 of A Fresh Start on Crumcarey
‘I’m sorry… I seem to have caught you at a bad moment?’ she said.
Luke snapped to attention, realising that she seemed to be having exactly the same problem. He wasn’t particularly big-headed, but he could swear her eyes had been glued to his chest two seconds ago.
‘Ah… not… not bad,’ he mumbled, beckoning for her to follow him into the kitchen.
Tee shirt. Where was his damn tee shirt?
He scuttled around, looking for the clean top he’d brought with him for after his wash and doing his best not to meet Maggie’s eyes as she stood there, still rubbing her hair with thetowel. He’d quite like to grab that towel and do the job for her. She needed to get out of those wet clothes too…
Speaking of clothes!
He grabbed his soft black tee shirt that had slipped onto the seat of one of his pilfered kitchen chairs and yanked it over his head.
There, that was better!
‘Right,’ he said. ‘Sorry about that! Now… how can I help?’
‘It’s my roof,’ she said in a small voice.
‘Uh huh?’ said Luke. He had a bad feeling he knew what was coming next.
‘I think it’s blown away.’
The words were met by a howling whistle from outside as the wind gusted around the outside of the barn’s walls. It sounded like it was celebrating.
‘You don’t look surprised,’ said Maggie when he didn’t say anything.
‘Sorry,’ said Luke with a small shrug. ‘We drove past your place earlier, and I saw that you’ve obviously been having… erm… a few issues!’
A small smile appeared on Maggie’s face, and Luke pulled out a chair in response. He needed to sit down before his knees gave way.
‘Understatement of the century, there,’ said Maggie.
Luke shrugged. ‘So… the tarps have blown off?’
‘Erm… I think it’s a bit worse than that,’ said Maggie. ‘And you don’t look surprised… again.’
‘I guess I’m not,’ said Luke. ‘Once these old roofs with the huge heavy slates start to fail, it doesn’t take much for the rest to give way. And this storm… is… a lot! What Iamsurprised by, though, is that you walked here. Not sure that was the wisest choice if I’m honest.’
‘I didn’t get much choice in the matter,’ said Maggie, pulling out the chair across from him and sliding into it.
‘Car troubles?’ said Luke.
‘If that’s what you call half your roof landing on half your car, then yes,’ said Maggie.
‘Oh,’ said Luke. ‘Shit.’
‘Yep. It is a bit,’ said Maggie. ‘And as it’s currently raininginsidemy house almost as much as it is outside… I thought I’d better come for some help.’
‘Good call!’ said Luke, nodding, though he had no idea what he could do to help with the weather still raging outside like an angry teenager. ‘Erm… well… there’s no way we can do anything about your roof in the pitch dark and in this weather.’
‘No,’ said Maggie. ‘Definitely not.’
‘Okay. Well… as far as I can see, you’ve got two options,’ he said. ‘One – we can make a dash for the truck, and I can drive you over to The Tallyaff. The road’s going to be a bit of a mess… but weshouldmake it over there in one piece…’
‘As long as no one else’s roof’s flying about,’ said Maggie.
‘Yeah… there is that,’ said Luke.
