Mountain River Girl

Chapter 3: Friends And Alibis

“Oh!” I smiled, slightly embarrassed at the realization he was waiting for me to tell him what to do next. “Joanne closed up early tonight. She gave me a spare key though. You’ll just have to put me down so I can take it.”

“She won’t mind when you drop by unannounced?” Kieran wondered while gently placing me back on my own two feet. He rested his hand in the small of my back, a not so subtle attempt at making sure I kept my balance while I searched for Joanne’s spare key in my jeans pocket. Once I found it, I quickly unlocked the door and pushed it open. I motioned for Kieran to enter but instead of doing just that, he picked me up by the waist and carried me inside.

“There you go,” he spoke, kicking the door shut behind himwith his foot. He frowned when I shivered. After a swift glance around the room, he nodded at himself. “Let me put on the fireplace.”

“Thanks,” I muttered. My teeth started to clatter, catching me by surprise. I hadn’t noticed how cold I really was, up until that moment.

“You should really get out of those wet clothes.”

“How come you aren’t freezing?” I questioned while I hobbled my way over to the small table, and dropped the spare key on it. Resting all my weight on my good leg, I removed my dripping wet jacket and hung it on the back of the nearest chair. While I waited for Kieran to answer, I tried taking off my shoes.

“I’m just used to it more, I think.”

“Well,” I replied after successfully freeing my hurt foot from its shoe. “Lucky you.” I didn’t even attempt trying to pull off my other shoe, knowing I wouldn’t be able to stand on my hurt ankle. The sound of a blazing fire made me direct my gaze towards the fireplace. There, my eyes found Kieran taking off his sweater. I followed his lead and tried to get out of my sticky wet sweater as well, try being the key word. The fabric stuck to the shirt I wore underneath and I struggled to keep myself from ending up in only my bra. By the time I pulled both my arms from the sleeves, I wanted to give up. I had my head stuck halfway through the neck of my sweater but didn’t get further than that.I let out a deep sigh in frustration.

“Hold your shirt down,” Kieran startled me as his voice sounded right next to me. Nonetheless, I did as told and held on to my shirt while Kieran pulled my sweater over my head, freeing from that piece of torturous fabric.

“Thanks,” I said and took my sweater from his hands so I could let it dry on another chair. “You can drape yours over that chair,” I pointed to one on the other side of the small table. “It’s pretty soaked as well.”

Another shiver ran through my body and I realized I wanted nothing more than to sit near the fireplace, but first I had to call Joanne. Seeing as I left my phone at home that morning when I left for work, I would have to use the phone in the shop.

“Why don’t you make yourself comfortable while I ring Joanne?” I suggested to Kieran. I didn’t wait for an answer before I hopped through the small passage way that connected the back room to the shop. As I sat down on the old bar stool behind the register, where the phone was located, Kieran appeared in the doorway.

“Just making sure you don’t topple over and hurt yourself even more,” he explained while lifting his hands in defense.

“I can move around just fine,” I replied while punching in Joanne’s phone number. “I’m not as clumsy as you probably –“

“Hello?” Joanne’s voice on the other end of the line interrupted me.

“Hey, Joanne. It’s Seda.”

“Oh. Hello, dear. Are you calling me from the shop?”

“Yes, I’m at the shop. I used your spare key to get in. I hope you don’t mind.”