Page 33 of The Seascape Between Us (The Men of Saltwater Cove #4)
Chapter Twenty-Five
Daniel
E verything took longer than I'd expected. Hauling bins of books from Grier’s shop to the small two-bedroom apartment above the store took us nearly three hours.
It would have taken us even longer if Lana and Bailey, who owned the bakery at the top of The Square, hadn’t turned up to check in on Grier.
He’d worked for them while he was a student, and they were now helping him get his own business started.
Grier looked like he was off to a great start.
I’d been in the shop a few times over the years, back when Harry Walters and his husband, Michael, ran the place.
Their store had been around since Oliver Mackenzie first founded The Square, selling an eclectic mix of touristy crap that cluttered every available space.
They retired a few months earlier and left The Square to travel.
Grier had taken over their shop and apartment when he finished school and had been getting the shop ready to open for most of the spring.
He’d done a great job. Without the clutter, and painted white, the store seemed about three times larger than I remembered.
I had also vastly underestimated the amount of inventory Grier had accumulated while getting his store ready to open. I'd probably still be moving books if Bailey and Lana hadn’t pitched in to help. With five of us, we finally managed to get all the boxes and bins upstairs and covered with tarps.
Alistair had asked if Lana and Bailey needed a place to ride out the storm, but they'd planned to stay with Lana’s parents in Portland. The storm probably wouldn’t be as severe farther inland, but Lana’s parents were getting older, and she didn’t like the idea of them being alone.
While we worked, I texted Grey about Brody and Jett staying with us.
Of course, he had no problem with it. Then I texted Brody, who agreed almost right away.
I smirked while reading his response. Under normal circumstances, Brody would have been a stubborn jerk, insisting on staying at his bar to keep an eye on it, but there was no way in hell he would do anything that risked Jett.
Brody would burn the bar to the ground before he'd ever let anything happen to Jett.
With that settled and four people working on boarding up Grier’s windows, I figured they’d be fine without me.
I left them and drove to the big grocery store in downtown Saltwater Cove, then on to the hardware store before making my rounds and ensuring everyone I delivered to had everything they needed.
At each stop, I helped people prepare for what forecasters repeatedly called the storm of the century . Every time they did, my gut clenched, and watching the blue-gray clouds slowly consuming the blue sky did nothing to ease my anxiety.
After dropping off supplies, I trimmed back bushes near windows, climbed ladders, and cut branches that could have fallen on houses, making sure garden items were secured so the wind couldn’t pick them up and cause damage.
All the while, clouds slowly filled the sky, turning a perfect summer day overcast. I was back in my truck and headed back to the hotel when my phone buzzed with another weather alert.
Pulling into the hotel parking lot, I grabbed my phone from the dashboard and opened the weather app. My stomach dropped, cold and slick, panic crawling up my throat. The storm was moving faster than predicted, and was expected to make landfall sometime tonight rather than tomorrow.
I was out of time. There was no way in hell I would get the hotel ready to face the storm in just a few hours.
I looked up at the building that Grey and I had put so much effort into renovating.
We’d poured everything we had into it—our time, money, blood, sweat, and tears—and now we might lose it all.
I got out of the truck and hurried into the hotel. When I told Grey that Jett and Brody agreed to stay with us, he said he'd run to the store to pick up more groceries, so I knew he wasn’t inside.
I should have thought of that while I was picking up supplies for the people in The Square, but it honestly hadn’t occurred to me. I’d just been so focused on making sure everyone else would be okay. Now, here I was, hopelessly behind schedule.
Outside, Grey had boarded up some of the rooms on the first floor, so I picked up where he’d left off.
As I worked, the sky grew ominously darker.
The wind kicked up, whipping through my hair and tugging at my shirt.
The relentless rush of waves crashing against the beach filled my ears, but didn’t drown out the low rumble of thunder.
I kept working, hauling plywood up over the windows and nailing it into place.
With just two rooms left, I thought I might actually finish—at least the ground-floor windows.
On the second floor, I wasn’t as confident.
I glanced at the curved floor-to-ceiling windows in the restaurant.
How could I even board those up? I didn’t have a clue—and no time to come up with a solution.
I was finishing up the second-to-last room’s window when the first cold drops of rain spattered against my back, trickling down my neck and arms. Above me, the sky had darkened, turning purple like an angry bruise.
Lightning flashed, streaking across the sea.
The waves rolled in fast and high, crashing along the beach and nearly sweeping up to the boardwalk.
One more window, and I could at least have the ground-floor windows boarded up. Lightning flashed again, and thunder cracked loudly overhead.
“Daniel!” I looked up from the sheet of wood I was positioning over the window to Grey bearing down on me, fury etched into his face. “Are you out of your mind?”
I blinked, confused. Why did he look so pissed? I tried to wipe away the rain running down my face and into my eyes with my shoulder, but my shirt was soaked and stuck to my skin. “I’m almost done.”
“You have to stop,” Grey shouted. “It’s too dangerous.”
My stomach sank, but I shook my head. “I can do it. There’s still time.”
As if to mock me, lightning flashed again, humming around us and filling the air with the smell of ozone. Thunder cracked directly above, leaving my ears ringing for a moment.
“Do you have a death wish?” Grey threw up his hands in frustration. “We need to go inside.”
“You should go in,” I agreed. “I’ll just finish this up.”
“No. There’s no time.” Shaking his head, Grey grabbed my elbow and dragged me toward the door.
I should have been here sooner; I should have worked faster. Now we were going to lose everything. I thought of the money he’d invested, the time he’d given up from his other life. My insides twisted in knots. I wanted to curl into a ball and wish it all away.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“You’re going to get yourself killed,” he growled.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I just… I thought…”
“I know,” Grey said, pulling me inside. The door closed, muffling the rush of the surf and the thunder shaking the building around us. “I thought we had more time, too.”
“We’re going to lose everything,” I said, my voice barely more than a whisper, my shoulders sagging and my gaze dropping to the floor.
“Maybe we will,” Grey countered, and I closed my eyes, wishing the ground would open and swallow me whole. His hands cupped both sides of my face, and I opened my eyes, meeting Grey’s intense gaze. “If we lose everything, we start again.”
I closed my eyes again. Grey pressed closer, his mouth brushing mine as he pulled me tight against him. I kissed him back, hoping that I could squash the tangle of thoughts spinning through my head like a cyclone, but it didn’t work.
How could I do this to him? How could I have dragged him into the shit show that was my life? He was everything I wasn't—successful, amazing. Everything I touched turned to crap.
How could I have ever let myself believe that I could have a future with him?
His father had been right about me. I was going nowhere and would only ever hold Grey back. I hated the thought of trapping him in my dead-end life while I failed at something else yet again.