“Cadence,” he said, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. He really did love her new hairstyle. It suited her. “I would like to kiss you now. Is that okay?”
“That is very okay,” she told him.
He cupped her cheek, bent down to kiss her, and?—
Bam!
Both their heads whipped toward the gallery at the sound, which had sounded like… well, Tyler wasn’t sure what it had sounded like, but it hadnotsounded good.
“Oh my gosh, what was that?” Cadence cried. She fumbled in her bag for the gallery keys and quickly opened the door, Tylerhot on her heels. They heard another sort of clanging sound as they went through the doors and…
“Oh, whoa, stop,” Tyler said, tugging Cadence back. “Hang on, let me go in first and check.”
Water was pouring out of the ceiling. After Tyler got through the doorway, his arms held over his head as if that would do much against the spray, he realized that it didn’t go far into the gallery. Itwasconfusing though.
“Ugh, the pipe!” Cadence cried. Her purse over her head made a far more effective shield, and she hopped nimbly over the puddle that the burst pipe, whose rupture had made the mysterious noises, had left in the entrance of the gallery.
“Didn’t you just get this fixed?” Tyler asked, huddling out of the range of the spray and waving his wife toward him.
“Yes!” Her tone was pure frustration as she crossed to his side. “Man, the plumber said it was fine! Ooh, he’s going to receive a strongly worded voicemail about the merits of checking his work before making promises!”
“I approve of your plan,” he told her. “But in the meantime, do you think we should shut off the water before it really floods in here?”
Her eyes went wide. “Theartwork!”
The next half hour was a flurry of teamwork. Tyler, following Cadence’s instructions, hurried over to the main water switch and turned it off. Then, he helped Cadence move all the art that was in the risk zone. Most of it went into the storage shelves in the back room, although Cadence did load up a few pieces into the back of her car when the storage area became too crammed.
When they were done, it was late and they were both unpleasantly damp.
“Well, this stinks,” Cadence said when they were outside, staring at the gallery like it was an enemy they’d vanquished.
This was such a masterclass in understatement that Tyler started to laugh. For a moment, Cadence looked at him, shocked, and then she too, erupted into giggles.
“Why are you laughing?” she demanded through her mirth.
“Why areyoulaughing?”
She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his shoulder. Tyler had been a little afraid to enjoy any moments of closeness between them before, but this time, he just let himself soak in the moment.
They were, after all, soaked themselves, he thought with another little inward laugh. Why not go with the overall mood?
He would have loved to just stay here, forever, in this moment with Cadence, but if he did so, it would cause her trouble down the line. And part of turning over a new leaf meant putting her needs ahead of his wants.
He sighed.
“I guess we’d better call a plumber.”
Cadence let her head rest against Tyler’s shoulder for justone moresecond.
But he was right. A plumber.
She had to deal with this, otherwise who even knew what kind of damage the water leak could do. And that would wreak havoc on her professional life… the one part of her life that wasn’t in a confounding sense of flux these past few months.
“Yeah,” she made herself say after that one extra second was up. “You’re right. Let me call Hank LeGrun. He does after hours.”
She queued up the number to the local plumber who did late night calls. Hank was semi-retired, and so he saved time for theevening and weekend needs so that his son, who had taken over most of his business, could keep his work to business hours.
In retrospect, Cadence should have waited for Hank’s son, who was incredibly reliable, to come out to do the initial fix. But his skill translated to a packed schedule, and she hadn’t wanted to wait.
