Page 66 of Follow Your Bliss

“Yeah, and I’ll show you how much later on.” I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “But right now we’re about to learn our fate.”

I made the final turn onto my street. Everywhere, people were picking up leaves, cutting up fallen trees. An Entergy truck was down the block, a man in a cherry-picker repairing something on a utility pole.

Then there was my property. Three trees had fallen over that I could see, their shallow, mud- and grass-covered roots perpendicular to the ground, tipped over from their bed in the lawn. One in the front yard, two in the parking lot, but none on the church. “Oh thank God.” I pulled as far as I could into the parking lot, inspecting the roofline. So many missing shingles. “Damnit, I’m gonna need that new roof sooner than later.”

We got out of the car and started walking toward the church.

Rose went around a branch I’d stepped over. “But insurance should help, right?” She gasped and grabbed my arm. “Jason.”

I followed her pointing finger. One of those goddamn water oaks had fallen on the rectory—right into Rose’s apartment. “Shit.”

The whole thing had tipped over like the others, its massive root circle taller than the roof, and the 60-, 70-foot trunk had fallen directly across the building.

I eyed the side of the house as I followed her to the kitchen door. “Damnit. Rose, that’s your bedroom.Fuck.”

The kitchen was eerily damp and covered with leaves as we made our way into the house. But one look down the hallway showed where the real damage was. The trunk had sliced through the roof and fallen to one side of Rose’s bedroom.

“Oh my God!” She stepped forward gingerly, but I reached out and grabbed her.

“Don’t go over there. We don’t know how secure that thing is.”

She pulled back, both hands over her mouth. “I can’t even—Jason, I’m so sorry this happened to your property.”

I pulled her into my arms and cupped her face, kissed her forehead. “My property? Thank God you evacuated with me. What if this happened in the middle of the night, and you were sleeping in your bed?” I pulled her tight against my chest. “You know what? Never mind, because I can’t think about that.”

She hugged me back, pressed a kiss to my neck. “But all of your beautiful, hard work in these rooms, your roof—oh jeez, thank you so much for making me put Becca’s dresses in the church. But all my stuff’s probably ruined. Maybe all my other dresses. And I don’t even have a place to sleep.”

“You lost all that, and your first words were worrying about my hard work.” I kissed the top of her head again. “Sweet Rose. Maybe your stuff will be okay. But look on the bright side. You can sleep with me.” I released her but kept my arm around her. I couldn’t begin to think of the repercussions of that invitation. “I don’t even know where to start. Let’s just go back to the beach.” I turned her around with me and started walking.

Her laugh cajoled a smile from me. “So tempting. But maybe you should take pictures for the insurance adjuster while it’s still light. I’ll throw away all the spoiled food from the fridge.”

“Yeah, that’s probably more productive. Then let’s see what we can get out of your room.”

It took us till nearly 10 o’clock to take photos, move everything we could get to of Rose’s belongings into the church, and clean out our fridge. I was going to have to move that into the community room tomorrow where there was a tiny, outdated kitchen area we could use temporarily. Thankfully most of her fabrics and all of her sewing machines and tools had been in the workroom and were unharmed. But the tree was completely blocking access to her room. I jimmied open the bathroom window to see what I could reach from there, but all I could get to was her packed bag of clothes that I hadn’t taken with us, two cardboard wardrobe boxes, and a plastic bin of shoes. So much of her stuff was trapped under the tree, and it didn’t look safe to go closer.

With all the grocery stores in the same boat as our fridge, I braved the super-long line at Lee’s Hamburgers, one of the only food places open for business. After dinner, I sat at the dining room table in the church as Rose washed all her clothes she could salvage—thank God I’d moved the washer and dryer into the main building last spring. I’d called in all the favors I knew to get that damn tree off the roof, but I’d still come up empty.

“Alright, Ryan. I appreciate you trying. Take care. Bye.” I hung up and rubbed my eyes.

“No luck?” Rose asked, sitting a laundry basket full of her clothes on the floor by the table.

“Nope. He didn’t know anybody either.”

She stopped and stared at me as if there was some obvious truth I wasn’t seeing. “I’m a dumbass. Let me call Heather. Her dad owns Aucoin Construction. I bet he can get us somebody to help.”

“Really? That would be amazing.”

“I’ll send her the pictures I took of it. If anybody can make the impossible happen, it’s Heather.”

I pulled her to sit in my lap, wrapping my arms around her and leaning my head on her shoulder as she texted. She hadn’t complained once today, working hard right alongside me. Helping me tarp the roof, carting her things out of her living space, reassuring me when I got too overwhelmed by the damages. She hadn’t batted an eye when I told her my idea to set up a temporary shower for us with hoses in the old community room bathroom. We worked smoothly together in a way I’ve never experienced, as if she was really my partner. It thrilled me to find yet another way, especially back from the cocoon that Florida had been, that we were so well suited for each other. She was my rock today, and just having her in my arms calmed me.

“Were you able to salvage a lot of your clothes and your dresses?”

“Kind of. The box of my wedding designs was so moldy, I didn’t think anything survived. I somehow only lost four of the twelve dresses in it, but then I lost over half of my favorite things. Like, the clothes I actually wear.” Her outgoing text swooshed, and she laid her phone down on the table, wrapping her arms over mine and leaning back against me.

“I’m so sorry, Rose. This is all my fault. I’ll bring you shopping and pay to replace everything.”

She turned in my lap to face me. “What are you talking about? The hurricane was in no way your fault.”

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