Page 257 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“Lennox!” Perry calls, and Tatum and I jump apart. “We need your help.”
“Be right there,” I respond. “I’m just checking on the generators.”
Tatum breathes out a tiny gasp. “Did you just lie to your brother?” she whispers through a grin.
I hold up my thumb and pointer finger, holding them an inch apart. “Tiny lie,” I say. “I’maboutto check on the generators.” I grab my phone off the shelf and hold out my hand. “Come with me?”
She bites her lip, only hesitating a moment before slipping her fingers into mine.
Holding hands makes it slightly more difficult to navigate our way through the kitchen in the dark, but I don’t care, and the tightness of Tatum’s grip tells me she doesn’t either.
Together, we check on the generator which is, gratefully, humming away, keeping the fridge cold and the freezer even colder.
“What does the generator power?” Tatum asks.
“Just the walk-in fridge and the freezer. It was too costly to get something for the entire building. And I didn’t see the point in keeping an empty building warm. It’s not like we’re going to open when we have no power.”
“You mean the empty building that I live in?”
I grimace. “Fair point.” I touch the tip of her nose with my free hand. “I guess you’ll have to turn into a popsicle like the rest of us.”
She will absolutelynotbe turning into a popsicle, but I need to check with Brody before I offer his house as a refuge. I’d invite her to my place, but she’d be no better off there than she is here.
Tatum follows me to the door, dropping my hand before we step into view of my brothers who are already working to cut away the tree.
We pause at the edge of the parking lot. “You’ll be okay here?”
She burrows down into my coat and nods. I reluctantly move toward my brothers to help, but my eyes keep going back to her. Every time I look, her eyes are focused on me.
Perry is already using my chainsaw, and Brody has his, so Tyler and I become the muscle, moving the logs away as they shave away at the massive trunk, chunk by chunk.
We haul the pieces to the edge of the parking lot, leaving them in a haphazard stack. By the time we finish, my biceps are screaming, I can barely feel my fingers, and my nose is numb from the cold.
We use several enormous tarps to cover the opening into the kitchen, anchored and angled in a way to keep snow from accumulating on top. It’s not a great long-term solution, but it should hold until the snow stops, and we can get some professionals out to do the needed repairs.
At some point in the process, Tatum disappears inside—something I sense more than I see—and I become almost obsessive about looking over my shoulder to see if she’s reappeared. But she doesn’t show. Not even when Tyler and Perry are pulling out of the parking lot and Brody is cranking the engine on his truck, ready to leave as well.
Maybe she went inside and got back in bed? Which I can understand, but I don’t want her to have to stay here. She won’t be warm here. And neither will her dog.
Dawn isn’t far off. The sun is still low behind the mountains, but the sky is lightening, casting a bluish glow over the falling snow. But it could be hours before the power is back on. And even in daylight, the temperatures aren’t supposed to get above freezing.
“You okay?” Brody calls from his open window, his arm resting on the truck door.
I scrub a hand across my jaw and move toward Brody’s truck. “I just need to check on Tatum. She went back inside, but I don’t want her to stay here. Do you—” I hesitate. “Do you mind if I invite her to your place?”
Brody gestures behind me. “One step ahead of you, man.”
I turn and look over my shoulder to see Tatum crossing the parking lot, still wearing my jacket, a bag hitched over her shoulder and Toby on a leash beside her.
I push away the sudden disappointment filling my chest. I’m glad she’s coming, but I’m sad I wasn’t the one who got to invite her.
“Kate invited her,” Brody says. “I assume this means you’re coming over too?”
I don’t have time to answer before Tatum opens the back door of Brody’s truck and climbs into the extended cab. “Come on, boy,” she says, scooting over and motioning for Toby to jump in beside her.
I climb into the passenger seat and look over my shoulder, my eyes meeting Tatum’s for the briefest second.
“Thanks for this,” she says to Brody, her gaze sliding away from me. “My apartment already feels freezing.”
