Page 79 of Goode Tidings

Then I grab my computer screens, face them toward each other, and cover them with a garbage bag. The bases stick out, but I can't worry about that right now.

"Follow me, ok?" I say just before we reach the door. Eden turns the handle for me, my arms are too full with the heavy screens. "Try to walk in my footsteps." The ground is muddy, and probably mixed with rock and pine cones and whatever else the rain has pushed around.

Eden nods her understanding. She opens the door, and I step through onto the tiny covered porch. She follows behind me, closing the door.

"Are you ready?" I ask. The wind pushes against us. I hate that she's going through this, but there's no other way to get her to safety.

Eden gives me an exasperated look. "You're forgetting I got down here by myself."

Despite our circumstances, I laugh. "Fair."

We step off the porch and into the driving rain.

It's slow going. The mud is slippery as hell, and it's all made worse by the fact that I'm so damn worried about Eden.

Turns out there's no need to be. She is rock-steady, taking small and sure steps in the places I've placed my foot before her.

We make it to the overhang off the cabin, soaked to the bone. Mud covers our shoes and splatters the lower halves of our legs.

Eden takes a deep breath and leans against the wall of the cabin. "You really know how to show a girl a good time."

"I aim to please," I huff, my arms burning from the weight of the screens. It's nothing compared to the feeling in my chest.

Eden braved the storm because she was concerned about me.

It's time I show her the same bravery.

CHAPTER 38

Eden

Before I decided to go on my Great Adventure down to check on Callum, I had the foresight to leave a pile of towels inside the back door. Now I pop open the door, leaning in to pluck two from the stack. Rain still smashes all around us, but at least we're no longer hurrying through it.

Straightening, I twist back to hand Callum a towel, but then I freeze in place. How could I not?

Dry Callum is handsome. Soaking wet Callum is wildly unfair. His long sleeve baby blue shirt sticks to his body, molding to the curve of his bicep, his corded forearms and expansive shoulders. Water drips from his too-long hair, running over his cheekbones and disappearing into his facial hair.

If something structurally compromising hadn't broken into our moment back there, I know exactly what would've happened next. And honestly? I'm sick of fighting it.

"Is that towel for me?" Callum asks hopefully, motioning at the towel in my grasp.

"Oh. Yes. Here," I say, shoving it at him. I need to get him back to dry Callum. Wet Callum has me, well, the same.

I use the second towel on myself, then look down at my dirty lower half. "What's the plan?" I ask, taking in how messy we both are.

"Lose the shoes. And the pants. Then we go inside."

I nod in agreement. "Now we're talking."

He chuckles. "I'll turn around. Give you privacy."

He does just that, and I toe off my shoes. I'm freezing, chill bumps dotting me from head to toe. With the towel draped over my shoulders, I manage to peel the wet jeans from my skin and wrap the towel around my waist.

"All good," I announce.

Callum turns around, eyes on my towel. "You'd better make sure that knot is tied well. They can be unruly."

I smile at our inside joke, but I end up shivering, too.