Page 36 of Spring Showers

“Like I’m gonna leave you here by yourself,” Grant said.

“It’s my job. You’re a guest here and I don’t want you getting sick because of me,” she said as the last couple left the bonfire and darted back to their cabin.

She scrambled and picked up the blankets, throwing them into the wheelbarrow beside the hay bales. No sooner did she gather the bins for the food than the sprinkling rain turned to a downpour.

In her periphery, Grant slid his plaid shirt off his shoulders and caused her to stop and stare. His white undershirt was immediately spotted with water droplets and clung to his skin. Grant pulled his plaid shirt up over his head like a makeshift umbrella and rushed to her side. She was helpless to do anything but watch the water sizzle off his toned body.

“Leave it. Let’s get out of here,” he said and held the shirt on one side while she took hold of the other.

Spreading the fabric to its widest breadth over their heads, they sprinted straight to his cabin, bypassing the walkway. His place was decidedly closer than hers was from the old shoreline, where the fire hissed its last breath behind them. Extending out from the side of his cabin and closest to them, they took shelter underneath a slanted carport roof, shivering from the cool air hitting their wet skin.

Grant wrapped his arms around her, and she took in as much of his warmth as he had to spare. “You’re freezing, but I have an idea,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He placed his wet flannel shirt over her shoulders and disappeared into the dark around the back side of the cabin.

“Where are you going? Grant?” She was too cold to move and stood there. “Grant? Where are you?” Had he gone inside and not invited her? It was no matter, she would wait for a break in the rain and make a run for her cabin, soaked through. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms and watched as lights turned on and off in the various other guest houses. “Grant?” she whisper-yelled into the night.

“Over here,” his voice called from behind the cabin.

She stepped around the corner toward his voice, curious at what she was walking into. She smiled and covered her mouth with the sleeve from his shirt as he came into view. “What are you doing?” She bit her lower lip but she was sure he could see the blush on her cheeks this time, despite the pale light.

He stood, waist deep and half-naked, in the round wooden hot tub. Steam rose like fog around him and seemed to melt away when it touched his toned skin, damp and glistening from the heat. His abs were impossibly chiseled, and he appeared dangerously tempting.

“Get in,” he said from under the protection of a small gazebo roof that was only slightly wider than the spa below. His command wasn’t an order, but an invitation. Though the way he spoke emphatically sent butterflies swarming to her chest.

No matter how enticing a dip in the spa sounded, she was certain joining him was against any professional rules. “I don’t think I should. I’m at work right now.”

“I thought we agreed to be done pretending,” he said.

Technically they hadn’t agreed to anything. She had never completed her thought out loud. But who was she kidding? Her reasons for not joining him were weakening by the millisecond. “I don’t have a bathing suit?” her words came out like a question and not the strong reason she had intended them to be.

“Neither do I.”

Her hands covered her face, and she shook her head as she contemplated what the heck she was about to do, and she knew she was about to do it from the way her feet were already moving towards him. “I think I should make a dash for it and go in for the night. The rain isn’t too bad.”

That excuse sounded worse than the other.

“Get in here.” He chuckled. “You can worry about the rest tomorrow.”

Thandie was lying to herself. The rain was bad. It was hard, stinging rain. The sort that is cold and sharp, like it may have been frozen rain when it was higher in the clouds and it had barely thawed out on its way to earth. Even so, joining him was crossing a line. Looking around at the otherwise quiet night, the guests had all turned in, the barn was dark, and the starry sky hid behind dark clouds. The coast was undeniably clear, and her resolve washed away with the rain.

She unbuttoned her jeans.Breathe. She slipped the zipper down so slowly, he likely thought she was teasing him when really she was second-guessing her ability to make good decisions.

Standing in the dim light, she knew he could see all of her. Heat pooled in her neck at the provocative scene she was partaking in. She crossed her arms at the hem of her shirt and peeled the wet tee from her torso and over her head. She hung it on one of a set of hooks fixed to the cabin’s exterior wall. Under her tee she wore a white sports bra, which honestly covered more than a bikini top, but was a bra nonetheless. She kicked her boots off and slid her jeans down around her hips, over her bottom, and down her legs, and pulled one foot out at a time. She hung them on another hook under the porch roof.

“I hope I don’t regret this,” she said under her breath. She knew her boldness, independent of her lack of clothing, would shock him, and it did.

He stumbled, catching himself on one of the gazebo’s supports. “Wow.” Grant gasped. “Can I say that?”

She felt bolder than ever, finding power in her decision not to overthink what was happening. Thandie tiptoed across the half dozen flat concrete stepping stones that led from the carport to the back patio. Wasting no time and dodging the fat raindrops, she climbed the riser and stepped into the hot tub. The whole scene seemed too good to be true, even for her. A spa heated by fire, the rain pattering against the wooden gazebo shingles, her, in only her white bra and panties, and the man who she had only known for three days holding his hand out for her to take.

She hesitated, remembering her promise to herself that she didn’t need a man. But for the first time in longer than she could recall, she felt that perhaps needing help and accepting help could be two different things. With Grant’s assistance, Thandie sunk down into the warm water and let it envelop her cold muscles like a hug.

“This feels good,” she said.

“See?” Grant lowered himself down into the water across from her. “I told you I had a good idea.”

She let her head fall back to the rim of the spa and relaxed her chest and shoulders. “It was a good idea.” A sigh whistled through her lips.

They sat in silence for several minutes, sharing glances and blushes that she was certain were on her cheeks. Her knees touched his in the small space, and she didn’t flinch to move away. His arms rested on the rim above the waterline, and he closed his eyes, relaxing into the curved back rest.

---