Page 13 of Renewal After Dark

“I was too busy worrying I might lose you.”

“Well, you didn’t, so don’t go thinking I’ve forgotten that you agreed to marry me.”

“Did that really happen?”

“You bet it did, and as soon as I’m standing on two feet again, we’re going for it.”

“I’ll look forward to that.”

“So will I. It’ll give me a goal to work toward in rehab.”

For a few minutes, they gazed at each other like the fools in love they were.

“You were okay after the other thing, right?”

“I was okay.”

“Sore?”

“A little, but it passed.” That’d been the least of her concerns after the roof fell on them.

“I’m glad.”

“Is it okay if I let your family in? Your mom needs to dote on you.”

“Sure but give me a kiss first.”

Kelsey leaned over the bed rail to kiss his rough lips. She needed to get him some more lip balm from the hospital store.

“One more and make it a good one.”

She smiled as she complied with his directive. Then she went to let in his eager family members.

Sarah went right to Jeff’s bedside to hover over him the way she had from the minute she’d arrived in Providence.

Of course, Kelsey was focused on Jeff and what he needed, but lurking in the back of her mind was panic over being out of work for an extended period. Thankfully, they both had health insurance through Mac’s construction company, but with a broken arm, she wouldn’t be able to care for Mac and Maddie’s children—including twin infants—for six to eight weeks.

She had a car payment, car insurance, cell phone bill and other regular expenses she wouldn’t be able to cover.

Not to mention most of her clothing and personal belongings were under a mountain of rubble back on Gansett. Sarah and Charlie had gone to the store to buy her some basics, and she’d need to reimburse them.

Eventually.

Worries about finances had kept her awake last night, long after the pain pills had finally kicked in and taken the edge off the sharp ache in her broken arm.

She could borrow money from her parents, but that was a last resort. They’d helped her and her siblings through college and were now excited to travel. She’d hate to do anything to hamper their plans.

Kelsey wished she could calm down and not worry so much. They were both alive. That was the only thing that mattered, but as someone who’d been born practical, according to her mother, she couldn’t help but fret about the details.

Mac stoodbefore the wreckage of the barn he’d managed to avoid for most of a week, staring at it while trying to get his head around what’d happened there during the storm. Kelsey and Jeff had come close to being killed. He’d never forget the frantic race to get them out from under the rubble before it was too late.

He shuddered as the horror resurfaced in vivid, graphic images that would haunt him forever. He’d refused to go near the site until now because he’d been too raw over what’d happened there and how lucky they were that Kelsey and Jeff had survived.

The former barn-shaped structure had been reduced to rubble by Hurricane Ethel. Mangled boards had formed a pile ten feet high in places, relieved only by the area where they’d worked in the wind and rain to free Kelsey and Jeff.

Big Mac joined him, striking a similar pose as he, too, stared at the ruins, probably reliving some of the same memories that’d tormented Mac for days now. “Thank God they’re on the mend,” Big Mac finally said after a long moment of silence.

“Indeed.”

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