Page 21 of Hero Next Door
Yeah, that hit her right in the chest.
She went flying back into the wall, hit it with an ‘oof,’ and slid down, hitting the floor and scooting quickly to the side to try to get out of the water. I ran toward her, horrified at what I’d done and equally horrified at the idea of her being hurt, but slid on the water when I tried to stop before I got to the wall.
I hit the wall right where she had and went to the floor beside her, and when I tried to get up, my boots—which were definitely due for new soles—slid right out from under me and sent me to the floor again.
This time, much to my horror, there was so much water on the floor that Isplashed.
The cold water flew into Parker’s face and she started sputtering like some broken engine—which made me start laughing. Which made her start laughing. When we both tried to get up and went to the floor again, each of us causing waves that splashed the other, the laughter got more frantic.
Hey, this water was very, very cold, and the kitchen was filling more rapidly than I could have believed. I was laughing out of panic, that was all. This was a bad situation and it needed to be fixed—which couldn’t happen if we were writhing around on the floor, splashing each other.
Another wave of water swept the thought from my mind, and when I looked up I saw Parker with her lips pressed together, her eyes big and laughing at me.
That little minx had splashed me on purpose.
I swept my hand through the water, sending an enormous wave over her legs, and she screeched and splashed me back, trying to get away while kicking as much water in my direction as possible. I roared and grabbed for her feet, knowing only that if I could stop her from kicking water on me, I might be able to breathe normally. Her screeching became even louder at that, though, and she started kicking at me in earnest, scooting backward through the water as fast as she could get there.
“Stop grabbing at me and go turn the water off!” she shouted. “What are you doing?”
“Stop kicking water at me so I can get up!” I shouted at the same time. “Why are you still laughing?”
This brought out more laughter, and the kicking grew even more heated. We were in at least three inches of water now, and I had the thought that it had to be rushing into other parts of the house, but before I could communicate that, we both froze a sudden noise
Someone was knocking on the door.
We stared at each other, our laughter forgotten and our mouths hanging open, and then jumped to our feet and rushed for the front door and whoever was on the other side.
CHAPTER11
Parker
Ihave to say, it didn’t look good. We threw open the door together, both of us breathless and dripping wet, our clothes stuck to each other and smiles still lingering on our faces from the uncontrollable laughter we’d just experienced.
Anyone standing on the other side of the door would have thought we were insane. Or worse.
Thank God it was only Avery.
She looked me up and down very slowly, and then turned her eyes to Dev. Her eyebrows went even higher when she saw that he was just as wet as me, and twice as breathless. And when she looked back at me, I could see both suppressed laughter and complete vindication on her face.
She was about to tell me that she’d been right about my feelings for Dev. I could see it on her face, plain as day. But she was wrong.
Dev and I both started talking at the same time, trying to explain what had happened and talk over the other in our need to tell our version of the story, and Avery looked from one to the other of us, a smile growing on her face and her eyes getting brighter and brighter.
Then Dev and I both stopped.
“Oh God, the water’s still on,” he breathed.
We ran for the main shutoff valve, my long legs reaching as far as they could to keep up with his, and got to the valve at the same time. I could see that it was turned all the way to one side, but it didn’t take a genius to realize that he’d turned it the wrong way.
“You didn’t think to check it first?” I asked, trying to turn it the other way.
He shoved me out of the way and turned it with one smooth, easy movement. “I didn’t check it because I thought I’d done it right,” he said, turning to me with a scowl that told me that he hated to be wrong.
Join the club.
I smirked, though, too tickled at the look on his face to be able to stay mad. “So does that mean you’ll be paying for the damage done to the kitchen?”
He leaned in, coming far too close to me, and breathed out slowly. “Seems like I already paid for the entire update to the kitchen, girl.”
