Page 6 of Merriment and Mayhem
“It’s just a precaution,” he said. “Department protocol. I won’t let you fall.”
Everleigh exhaled shakily. “All right.”
Quickly and efficiently, he worked to secure the belt around her middle. “You know, you didn’t have to go to all this trouble just to see me again. You could’ve just called.”
“Aw, shucks,” she deadpanned, voice quivering only a little. “You found me out. This was nothing more than a desperate bid for your attention.”
“Called it.” His hands lingered on her waist. “You ready to let go?”
It took a second for her fingers to obey her brain. As soon as she relaxed her grip, the drainpipe shuddered, creaking ominously. A gasp flew from her mouth.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay, you’re okay.” He squeezed her waist. “I’ve got you.”
She shook her head and pinched her eyes shut, clinging to the gutter like a lifeline.
“Everleigh. Look at me.”
Maybe it was his tone, or maybe that he’d called her Everleigh, but without question, almost as if compelled by the sound of his voice, she complied.
Griffin stared steadily at her, blue eyes beseeching. “Trust me.”
With a short, sharp breath, Everleigh let go, trusting that he wasn’t going to drop her. Barely a split second of free fall later, she found herself cradled against his chest. Sooner than she’d have liked, she was back on her feet, stupidly mourning the loss of his arms around her.
Hands still fisted in his shirt, Everleigh tipped her head back and looked up at him.Bigmistake.Huge.If she had thought he was beautiful standing in her grandmother’s kitchen, he was breathtaking now, bathed in shades of gold and pink, the setting sun hovering right at the horizon glinting off his skin, giving him an almost ethereal glow.
His smile was soft and slanted, and Everleigh’s heart, already racing, beat even faster, a painful tattoo against her ribs. “I told you I wouldn’t let you fall.”
“I guess you did,” her voice came out breathy, barely above a whisper.
His big hands rested on her hips, calloused thumbs sweeping an arc against the strip of bare skin between her jeans and sweater, the latter of which had ridden up during the rescue. Goose bumps erupted across Everleigh’s skin, and she was pretty sure she wasn’t imagining the way Griffin’s eyes darkened, his breath shuddering from between his lips.
“How we doing up there, Brantley?”
Everleigh jerked back, Captain Keegan’s voice a cold-shower shock, snapping her back to reality. For a moment, she had forgotten where she was, that she was standing on the platform of a ladder suspended thirty feet in the air, neighbors gathered in the yard below, watching this entire disaster unfold.
Griffin scrubbed a hand over his face, chuckles petering off into a sigh. “On our way down, Cap!” He pressed a button on the control panel, and as the basket began to lower, Frank let out a cheer that incited a round of applause from the neighbors down below.
Everleigh groaned. “You must think I’m a total disaster.” She certainly felt like one.
“Eh, I was thinking more along the lines of a hot mess.” He grinned wolfishly, eyes dragging down her body. “Emphasis onhot.”
Despite it being only a few degrees shy of freezing out, Everleigh went warm all over. “Well, I’m not. A mess, I mean. Not usually. Unfortunately, you’ve just been witness to my extraordinarily awful spate of bad luck.”
An extraordinarily awful spate of bad luck that she could only pray would soon pass.
Griffin hummed. “See, what you call bad luck, I’m more inclined to call fate.”
“Fate?” She laughed. “You think it’sfatethat my grandmother’s neighbors had to call 911 for me twice in one week?”
He shrugged a shoulder. “Feels a little like the universe wanted us to cross paths, is what I’m saying.”
“Wow,” she breathed.This guy.He just didn’t quit, did he? “I bet that line works on all the girls.”
“A few guys, too.” His lips twitched. “But it’s not a line. I’m serious. You’re telling me it doesn’t feel alittleserendipitous, us meeting like this?”
“Like I said. An awful spate of bad luck.”
His tongue pressed against the inside of his cheek, and he squinted, blue eyes twinkling in the late-afternoon sun. “Mark my words, Trouble, I’m gonna win you over yet. You’ll see.”
