“Okay.” He placed his hands in hers and shoved his heels against the bed frame. He was impressed by the strength of her grip.
“On three. One, two, three.” She pulled, and he heaved himself upward. She staggered backward a few steps. His feet hit the floor, and he tightened his hold on her hands. They stayed upright.
She grinned. “See? Piece of cake.”
He returned her smile. “Thanks, Wonder Woman.”
“Ah, it was mostly leverage. No big deal. So how wet are you?”
“Check it out.” He turned around.
“Wow. The back of you is soaked through. You’d better take everything off.”
“Great suggestion.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Hang on to that thought while I see what’s going on with this water bed.”
“Well, I hope you know something about them, because I know zero about those things.”
“My parents used to have one.” He walked back to the bed. “Theirs developed a leak in the middle of the night. I’m sure Cynthia remembers the hullabaloo, which gave her the idea for this trick.” He folded back the soggy quilt and the wet sheets.
Just that little bit of pressure caused water to puddle on the plastic surface. As he wiped it away with a corner of the sheet, he could see a tiny pinprick. He wondered how many there were. It might not have taken many.
He continued to roll the bedding out of the way. “Would you please see if there’s a plastic shower curtain in the bathroom? And if there is, would you unhook it and bring it in here? I want to strip all this off.”
“Sure.”
“Thanks.” As he exposed more of the mattress, he discovered a few other tiny holes. As he’d learned from the incident with his parents’ bed, that would be enough to cause chaos.
When he uncovered the very middle of the bed, he found a sealed plastic bag with a piece of paper inside. “Looks like they left us a love note,” he called out to Giselle.
“What’s it say?” She came back into the room with a forest-themed plastic shower curtain in her arms.
“I’m about to find out.” He wiped his hands on a dry section of sheet before unsealing the bag and taking out the paper. “My darling brother,” he read aloud. “If you’re reading this, I apologize for denying you and Giselle some water bed fun. But . . . gotcha, LOL!
Knowing you, and I do, you’re going all paranoid about the potential damage from this stunt. Bryce and I spent hours arranging it, and more hours rigging it up, with permission from the owner, who is in possession of a sizable damage deposit. We put a layer of plastic under the bed to protect the floor. A cleaning crew will come in tomorrow and replace the water bed and frame with the original bed that goes in this cabin.
All the holes are on top, so if you don’t disturb the mattress more than you already have, all should be well. Leave everything as is, if you can stand to do that, which you probably can’t, but that’s up to you, Bro. See you in the penthouse at 8 p.m. Smoochies, Your loving sister and future Moonbeams dancer, Cynthia.”
He glanced up. “I’ll be damned.”
“She sounds as thorough and responsible as you are, Mr. Dalton.” Giselle looked at him with a bemused expression. “Still want this?” She lifted the shower curtain she’d been holding.
“I don’t know.” Folding the note, he surveyed the wet bedding. It had soaked up the water that had oozed out while Bryce and Cynthia had remade the bed to set their trap. If he left it there, it would continue to absorb any other possible leakage, but since all the holes were on top, as his sister had mentioned, there wouldn’t be much.
Moving all of it into the bathroom, as he’d planned, would accomplish little except to transfer the sogginess to a different location. “I guess not.” Still holding the note, he walked toward her. “But I’ll put the shower curtain back up.”
“Nope.” She stepped out of reach. “I’ll do it while you light the fire and start drying your clothes.”
“Oh.” Thoughts of a leaking water bed and his rebellious sister evaporated in the heat of her gaze.
She winked at him. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about all those hours we have to fill.”
His breath caught at the rich sensuality in her voice. “I got momentarily distracted.” That seemed inconceivable now, as his heart hammered and his groin tightened. “It won’t happen again.”
“I doubt it will. Meet you in front of the fire.” Her hips swayed provocatively as she walked away from him. His soft groan was greeted with laughter. “Better hurry, Luke. It won’t take me long to hang up this shower curtain.”
Galvanized by that thought, he headed for the living room. He tucked Cynthia’s note in the pocket of his jacket. Then he realized the couch was cluttered with their jackets and the DVD.
He moved it all to a chair, because he envisioned using the couch for the activities they’d been denied on the water bed. But when he examined the couch more closely, he realized it was a futon. Bonus. Releasing the back turned it into the equivalent of a double bed. Not quite the king he would have preferred, but far better than the couch he’d planned to work with.
They’d also want to be near the fire. He set aside the coffee table and pulled the futon closer to the hearth. Next he became aware of how many windows existed in this room compared to the bedroom. If someone were to come up on the porch . . . He didn’t relish putting on a show. He locked the front door and closed all the curtains.
Finally he turned his attention to the fireplace and checked the flue to be sure it was open before flicking the butane lighter to ignite the kindling. He couldn’t help wondering if the logs in the fireplace, the open flue, and the handy butane lighter had been Cynthia’s work, too. She used to love family vacations up in the mountains, and they’d always rented a cabin with a fireplace.
Once the flames began licking at the dry wood, he set the screen in place, got to his feet, and stripped off his damp shirt.
“You can hang your clothes on this. I thought you’d be done by now.” Giselle walked in, carrying a wooden kitchen chair. “Whoa, is that a futon?”
“If it isn’t, I just broke their couch.”
“I’m sure it’s a futon. Sure is dark in here, though.”
“Think you’ll have trouble finding me?”
“Nope. I’ll just listen for the sound of heavy breathing.”
“Very funny.” But true. Now that she was back, he was primed and ready for action. “Thanks for the chair.” He took it from her and positioned it to one side of the fireplace.
“You’re welcome. When I went to find a chair, I discovered something else. If we’d followed the urgings of our stomachs instead of our hormones, we would have known that our siblings left food for us in the kitchen.”
“You’re kidding.” He arranged his shirt over the back of the chair. “Do you think it’s safe to eat?”
“Depends on whether you believe that her note was written in good faith, but I’d say yes. Their pranks have involved water, not food.” She handed him a piece of paper.
Luke quickly read the note.
Dearest brother,
A bucket of fried chicken and some coleslaw are in the refrigerator. There’s ground coffee in a can next to the coffeepot, along with some coffee filters. I didn’t leave you any booze because I don’t want you drinking and driving. Not that you would, come to think of it.
Smoochies,
Your loving and talented sister,
Cynthia
She kept dinging him for his ultraresponsible behavior. Or was she paying him a compliment? He didn’t really know, but she’d demonstrated that she could be just as responsible, as Giselle had said earlier.