Page 54 of Chasing Stars
“Sorry, Kris, this is an emergency,” I say, flipping the camera around to show Danny.
Danny whistles low. “That’s a lot of water damage.”
“Yeah. Can I borrow your shop vac?” I ask.
Danny gets out of bed, taking his phone with him “I’ll be right there,” he says, as if all of a sudden he sees the urgency.
“Thanks, man,” I say, hanging up.
By the timeJenna gets up, Danny and I have cleaned most of the mess. We emptied the water-filled buckets, picked up the stray pieces of plaster, and shop-vac’d the floor, which is what I suspect woke her up. We set box fans up to dry out the area as quickly as possible. I’m running a mop over the crusty linoleum when she pads downstairs.
“Miles, you did all of this without me,” she says, but it’s not a question. She actually sounds touched.
“With Danny’s help,” I say, turning to her and gesturing at Danny in the backyard, carrying black garbage bags of debris.
Jenna’s eyes glisten and she sniffles. “Miles. That’s so nice,” she whimpers, and I’m afraid she’s going to start crying again. Instead, she pulls me into a hug. “Thank you,” she murmurs into my chest.
I kiss the top of her head. “It’s nothing,” I say. “I told you—I’m an early riser.”
Danny interrupts us when he comes inside. “Jenna.” He nods in greeting. She’s still only wearing my black T-shirt, the bottom of it barely skimming her thighs. She tugs at the hem and scootches behind me to hide her exposed legs. A slow smirk tugs at my lips. Danny notices, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Hi, Danny. Thank you so much for helping Miles.” She peeks around my side, her hands settling at my waist. “I’d hug you but…I wasn’t expecting company.” She lets out an embarrassed giggle.
“Don’t mention it,” Danny says with a chuckle. “But I don’t think you should stay here. I will call my roofing guys today, but I’m honestly not sure how quickly they will be able to get outhere. In the meantime, I am going to nail a waterproof tarp to the roof to hopefully prevent any more damage.”
Jenna’s brow furrows, but she only nods.
Danny turns to me. “I have some tarps in my shed. I’m going to grab them, then you can help me nail them on.”
“Sure. Yeah, of course,” I reply, nodding. “Thanks, buddy.”
Danny nods and walks toward the door. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes, so if you’re gonna get freaky, you better do it now.” He chortles at his own joke and then he’s gone.
I turn to face her and Jenna and I stare at each other for a moment before I pull her into another hug. “What am I going to do?” she mumbles.
I tip her chin up, guiding her gaze to mine. “Do you want to be rescued?” I whisper, fighting back the twitch of my lips. “I know you can take care of yourself but…”
Jenna bites back a smile and casts her gaze on my mouth. “It might be nice to have some help with this,” she murmurs.
“Is that a yes? You want me to white knight you?” I tease.
“Miles.” Jenna rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling.
“I need you to say it,” I say emphatically. “Say, ‘Miles, I want you to rescue me.’ That way, you can’t come back at me later for this.”
“I’m not going to come back at—” Jenna drops her arms exasperatedly.
“Ah, ah.” I interrupt, wagging my finger at her. “Say it.”
Jenna huffs. “Fine. Miles, I want you to rescue me.”
I pull her closer to me again. “That doesn’t sound very enthusiastic,” I rasp, cupping her cheek. She nuzzles my hand, closing her eyes and melting into my touch.
“Miles,” Jenna murmurs.
“Yes?” I ask, grinning.
“Please, rescue me. Please do all the hard things and make all the phone calls I don’t want to make.” Her voice catches and it causes my chest to tighten.
