Page 14 of Stuck with the Grump

7

LEIGH

Whenwefinallywokeup, lunchtime had come and gone. There were several messages waiting on my phone, all of them from my mom. I listened to the messages, my heart sinking in my chest with each one. After I listened to the last message, I did a quick search.

“Damn,” I said, getting out of Clarke’s bed and walking to the door. I paced back and forth, wondering what the hell we were going to do.

Clarke sat up and looked at me, the sheets falling around his waist to show off his toned stomach. For a moment, I considered forgetting our current problem and climbing back into bed with him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he yawned.

“The road was washed away.”

“What?”

I tossed my phone onto the bed beside him. He grabbed it and glanced at the news article that was still on the screen. Clarke skimmed it quickly before swearing and getting up.

“Well, I guess I’m not heading home today.”

I stared at him, a sharp pain in my chest.How can he be that eager to still leave after the night we spent together?

With a sigh, I left the room and banished the thought from my mind. Clarke was notmyanything, and I had no business getting attached to him. I entered the living room and saw the tree still spread across the floor. Wind was whipping against the tarps, but the next round of rain was still holding off.

The road was already washed away, and more rain wasn’t going to help. We were stuck in a house neither of us had wanted to be in together. There was a lot to process there, but I wasn’t going to begin trying without coffee.

I stumbled my way through the kitchen to the machine and dumped grounds into the filter before filling the water. The old machine groaned as it came to life and coffee started dripping. My stomach growled as I opened the fridge and pulled out sandwich supplies. More storms were going to be passing through and losing power was inevitable. I was going to enjoy a sandwich before that happened.

“Leigh?”

“Kitchen,” I said around a mouthful of sandwich.

Clarke appeared in the doorway; a pair of pajama bottoms slung low around his hips. I admired the view for a moment before turning back to my sandwich. His feet softly padded against the floor as he made his way to the coffee machine.

“Cream and sugar in mine,” I said, finishing off the last bite of my sandwich.

“Look, Leigh, what I said came out wrong.”

“Seemed like it came out right to me.”

He sighed. “You don’t understand. I spoke before I thought about what I was saying. We’re trapped here and neither of us wanted to be here together. I know you want your time alone so I’ll stay out of your way, and you can stay out of mine. It’s a big house so we shouldn’t have to see each other if we don’t want to.”

He set the mug of coffee down in front of me. I stared into its depths, trying to find the strength to not dump it over his head. I tried all the tricks my mother taught me when I was younger to control my temper but the urge to rip into him was there.

“You’re an asshole,” I said, settling on the nicest thing I could say in that moment.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he said before sipping his own coffee. “Care to enlighten me about why I’m an asshole this time?”

“We sleep together and then we spend all day sleeping and cuddling in your bed. And then you decide—for both of us, might I add—that the best thing to do is just avoid each other until we can go home.”

“The only road here washed away. What else do you think we should do? Both of us were looking for quiet time away to work on things without people around. I still think we should do that.”

I nodded. My mouth set in a thin line. “Alright. Sounds good to me. Have fun.”

Before he could say anything else, I left the kitchen to go sit on the back deck. The chairs were all wet, and the sun was starting its descent back to the horizon. The lake was lapping against the shore as the debris from the storm washed up onto the sand. I stared out over the lake, wondering what I was going to do now.

Clarke had given me the best orgasm in years and now he was stepping back and pushing me away. I couldn’t blame him, though. He was my brother’s business partner, his best friend, and thirteen years older than me. It was a lot to put on top of one round of shower sex.

I wasn’t going to let his coolness bother me. Instead, I finished my coffee and walked back inside with a bright smile on my face.

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