Page 48 of The Love Shack

“—and she just hands you the cloth?”

With an exaggerated wince, he said, “Okay, so I was pretty limp, even dizzy, you know?”

New concern brought her closer again, but this time she didn’t hug him.

“Louann helped me.”

“By wiping you down?”

“Yeah.”

“Just your face?” she asked skeptically.

She was so damn cute, Lawson couldn’t help but grin. “Actually, my face, throat, chest and arms. I was sweating like a pig, my head was pounding, and I felt like I might chuck. She kept wetting the rag and using it all over me, even my stomach and then my feet. Louann said it was the best way to help, that she needed to cool my body temperature. Every so often, she had me drink more water, but she had to help me with that, too.”

Still concerned, but also clearly irked, Berkley said, “I’m imagining her as a shapely, beautiful woman fawning over you.”

With a laugh, Lawson gave in to impulse and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Louann was a stout fifty-five-year-old nurse who traveled with my boss everywhere he went. They’d been life partners for over thirty years.”

“Oh.”

“She treated all of us like boys, bossing us around whenever she felt like it, randomly spritzing us with sunscreen or demanding we chug down a sports drink. In a lot of ways, she was the unofficial mom of the group.”

“See, now I like her.”

He laughed again. “She kept me down for the rest of that day and part of the next, checking my temperature and forcing me to take it easy.” He remembered those days with a mix of fondness and despair. “I wanted to be out there, doing my part, but I knew she was right. Two other guys got sick, and one ended up in the hospital with heatstroke. Louann had her hands full on that trip.”

“It sounds like she was an important part of the group.”

“Definitely.” Other partners had traveled along, and oftentimes they’d pitched in where they could, but they weren’t as vital as Louann. “Nothing draws people together like a common cause, with everyone doing what they can during a tragedy. Unfortunately, there’d been too many times we couldn’t help. Too many deaths, too many left homeless.”

“You can’t do everything,” she said.

A perfect segue for him to make his point. He cupped her face in his hands and bent his knees to look her in the eyes. “Same goes for you, Berkley. You’re one person. You can only do so much. This town, the people who live here, they want to help. They’re proud of the shelter, and proud to have you running it. It’s like an accomplishment for them. Let them do their part.” He leaned in to stress his point. “Let them feel useful.”

Sudden applause had them both turning. Betty sat at the side of the couch, a little more disheveled than usual, grinning widely. “Hear, hear! Perfectly said, Lawson. No one should discount such wise sentiments. I have a feeling that soon your volunteer sign-up sheets will be full, and you’ll have more help than you need.”

Berkley collapsed against Lawson with a laugh.

Looping his arms around her, he thought that this could become a thing...and he wouldn’t mind at all.

“You’re ganging up on me, so I have to give in.” She didn’t let him hold her long before she straightened again and smiled. “Thank you. Both of you. You make Cemetery even better, when I hadn’t thought that was possible.”

8

Everything seemed tochange after that day. Not just the weather, which turned hot and dry over the next two weeks, but her attitude, too. About everything. Life, friends.

Men. Or rather one man.

She no longer had a need to isolate herself.

Or shy away from her growing feelings for Lawson.

No, she didn’t know how he felt in return. He might only consider them friends, and if so, she’d be okay with that.

But now she was hoping for more. How much more, she didn’t know. There were times when she wasn’t sure how much she could do. She’d lived for years despising the idea of romance, of involvement.

Of opening herself to scorn.

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