Page 20 of That Summer
I grinned at her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She smiled. “It’s been nice having someone to help out around here. I thought Sarah would be around more, but I couldn’t take her summer away from her. And well, you—”
“Got into trouble.”
“Right.”
“But it hasn’t been all that bad. I’ve learned about apples and how to fix a leaky sink.” Among other things like changing light bulbs, unclogging toilets, and fixing TVs that were only “broken” because the batteries in the remote was dead.
“That you have.”
“I also realized that I can have fun without beer.”
Deb through her head back in laughter. “That you can.”
* * *
Two moviesand a bowl of spaghetti later, it was now dark, but still pouring rain. With each movie, we’d moved closer and closer to the middle of the couch. I was hoping that, eventually, we’d move close enough to touch.
There was no sign of Sarah, so maybe she did get back with her boyfriend and was having fun make-up sex. I, on the other hand, had only used my hand for the past three months and I was dying. That could also explain why I wanted to kiss Deb until her knees gave out and she was lying on her back with me on top of her.
I was just about to get up and grab another drink when everything turned dark after a burst of lightning flashed and a crack of thunder rumbled through the house.
Deb turned to me. “We need to go make sure the generators are working for the cold storage.”
Right. The apples. “Okay.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“No.” Duke never showed me those on my first day.
“I’ll show you.”
After grabbing flashlights from the kitchen, we moved to the front door and began putting on our shoes. “Wouldn’t the power be on in the house if the generators are working?” I asked.
Deb shook her head. “No, we don’t have one for the house. Only two for the barn.”
I nodded and then opened the front door. The sound of rain pouring from the sky and hitting the brick driveway echoed all around us. “Umbrella?”
“It’s a little rain, Blake. Won’t kill you.”
I balked at her. Little rain? It was raining harder than a cow pissing on a flat rock. “Uh, okay. Lead the way.”
Deb took off running, and I followed, slamming the door behind me. We splashed in puddles as we went and once we made it to the doors of the barn, we were drenched from head to toe.
“A little rain, huh?” I teased after we walked inside.
Deb looked down at herself and then shrugged. “That’s why we have dryers.”
“But we have no power,” I countered.
“We have other clothes.”
This was true. “All right. You got me there. Let’s see if we have power in here.” I flipped the light switch and nothing happened.Fuck.
“The generators should have kicked on.”
“But they didn’t.”
