Without even thinking, I fumbled for my phone. It was already ringing by the time I got it to my ear.
“I’m at the house, one of the windows has smashed in the storm. You’ve got to come help me!”
Chapter Thirteen
Sam
“I got here as soon as I could. There was flooding on one of the roads,” I said as soon as I made it inside. “How bad is it?” The call that Helena had made to me had been panicked; I hadn’t bothered to ask her many questions. Instead, getting in my car, I’d headed over to Pat’s house as quickly as I safely could.
The storm was everywhere, heavy rain and fallen branches. It was a terrible night before Pat’s wedding, but the forecast had promised a better day tomorrow. Of course, it had said nothing about broken windows.
“It’s in the bedroom,” Helena answered, making me wince. That was the worst room that could possibly have been disturbed. If it had been one of the other rooms, at least we could have just shut the door and warned Charlotte not to go in until Pat had time to sort things out.
Gripping my hand hard, Helena guided me up the stairs. Despite the fact I was probably more familiar with the house than she was, I didn’t object. Hopefully, it gave her some sense of comfort to know she didn’t have to deal with this by herself.
“There’s glass everywhere,” she informed me, somewhat needlessly. As she opened the door, I could see the extent of the damage. Helena looked pale in the dim light. “I don’t even know where to start. There’s no point trying to dry things out until we can stop the rain from coming in, right?”
“Right.” I nodded, trying to think on my feet. There was no way we were going to get a new window fitted in the middle of the night during a storm. But we could at least deal with some of the damage. “There’s some boards in the back, I can nail this shut. Can you get me the toolbox from the garage?”
Once Helena nodded, we jumped into action. I found the boards, bringing them upstairs. Working with Helena, we got them up against the broken window, careful of the smashed glass. When it was all done, silence seemed to fall around us, the storm still lashing the windows but no longer coming inside.
Looking around the bedroom, I frowned. There was broken glass and water everywhere. The mattress looked soaked. “Fuck,” I sighed. “We need to fix this, right? No one wants a wedding night in a wet bed.”
The work had brought a flush of pink to Helena’s cheeks. As she turned to smile gratefully at me, it struck me that her eyes had never looked more blue. “We do,” she agreed. “I’m sorry, I’m sure this isn’t how you were planning on spending tonight.”
Honestly, before Helena’s phone call, I’d mostly been pacing nervously around my room. My speech was tomorrow. I knew it by heart, but that didn’t make the prospect any less frightening.
Having something to take my mind off it was actually helpful. “Is there a dustpan and brush?” Helena asked. “I can sweep up the glass while you…” She gestured vaguely at the bed.
“While I deal with everything else?” I teased, but did then give the bed a thoughtful look. “We could swap the mattresses with one of the guest rooms? It’s not going to be as grand but they’re all new, so I doubt there will be a huge difference.” And it would be better than sleeping on a wet mattress. While this was a very unfortunate situation, I felt confident that Helena and I could fix it.
Telling her where she could find stuff to clean up, I began to strip the bed. “All the bedding can go in the washing machine and then in the dryer,” I commented when Helena returned. “Not much we can do about the boarded-up window but hopefully they’ll be too distracted by each other.” Pat would probably even find this a bit funny. Tomorrow, after the wedding. Not now.
Helena dropped carefully to the floor, beginning to sweep up the million shards of glass. “If you can do the mattress, I can run things through the washing machine,” she offered. “I once had to carry a mattress up three flights of stairs. You’re definitely better equipped for it than I am.”
Mattresses were surprisingly heavy - and awkward. Helena had a point about that.
“You’re so calm,” she added, a moment later. “I still feel like my heart is racing.”
The comment surprised me but also made me laugh. I hadn’t considered how I felt, but Helena was right. The thing was that nothing felt that hard. We’d fix things and everything would be fine. But her words did make me think back, wonder if when we’d first known each other, I would have reacted differently.
“I suppose I am calm,” I agreed. “Focusing on fixing things is easier for me than stressing about what's broken.” Even if in this case, it very much was something actually broken.
Moving the mattresses was even harder than I had imagined but with a bit of help from Helena, we got the new one on. We were doing well! I showed Helena where the washing machine was. Leaning against the dryer, I watched her load it up.
“Why are you here?” I asked, realizing that I had no idea.
Her cheeks flamed scarlet, her blue eyes cutting towards me with a look I recognized. It was the same look she’d had when I’d caught her planning
