“I love you just as you are, too,” I reply. “My beautiful, intelligent, incredible wife.”
“Jack.” Nora giggles; something she never does except around me. “Those are a lot of adjectives.”
“They’re all true.” I’m not exaggerating in the least. Nora is without question the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.
Her lips brush my jaw. “Jack. My handsome, sexy, brave, and amazing husband.”
Love swells in my chest until it feels like there’s no way to contain all of it. “I love you, Nor.”
She kisses my neck. “I love you.”
Once I signal to turn onto the road that leads to the Blade and Arrow property, I say, “How about this. Tomorrow, we’ll have a lazy day. We’ll sleep in, and I’ll make you breakfast in bed. We can watch aHouse Huntersmarathon, order delivery, and just lounge around all day.”
“That sounds nice,” Nora replies. “But I do have some work?—”
“You weren’t going to do it before,” I point out. “Youtook tomorrow off, since we were going to be at my parents’. Even if we’re home, you can still take the time off. Plus, if you’re not feeling well…”
“I’m feeling much better. And once I get a good night’s sleep in our comfy bed, I bet I’ll be good as new.”
I almost push the doctor’s visit again, but decide at the last second to let it go. Instead, I’ll see how she’s doing tomorrow, and reassess then. For now, she seems to be doing okay. And, hopefully, a night at home instead of the guest room at my parents’ house will help.
“Okay,” Nora says. “We’ll have a lazy day tomorrow. Except, if it keeps snowing, maybe we can take the kids out to play in it.” She smiles. “Remember last year, when Cole made the sledding hill for Clara? How cute was that?”
“Itwasreally cute,” I agree.
“And this year, Lily will be old enough, too.” Nora brightens. “Maybe we can make them a little snow fort. I bet they’d love that.”
“Maybe,” I reply vaguely. I’m not crazy about the idea of Nora spending time out in the cold. But like the doctor’s visit, we can cross that bridge when we come to it.
As the turnoff to our driveway approaches, Nora leans forward in her seat. “That’s strange. The lights are out.”
“Hmm?” With the snow growing heavier, my attention has been more on the road than the rest of oursurroundings. But as soon as I follow Nora’s gaze, I see what she means.
Usually, the B and A property is lit by a series of outdoor lights, some of them around the perimeter of the house, and more lining the driveway. Given that it’s nearly one AM, I’m not surprised that all the windows are dark. But the outside lights should be on.
“Maybe the power went off,” I offer. “It’s pretty windy, and with the storm…”
“Everything’s hooked to a generator, though. Even the outdoor lights.”
“Did you notice any other buildings that lost power?” I glance in the rear view mirror to check. But with the dark, the increasing snow, and the relative isolation of the property on the outskirts of town, it’s hard to tell.
“Not in town,” Nora answers. “There could be something wrong with the generator, I suppose.”
“It’s possible.” A splinter of unease pricks at me. Not that anything overly unusual is going on—we lose power at least a few times a year, which is why Cole had the generator installed, and generators I’m sure have been known to fail.
But there’s just thisfeeling.
As I turn into the driveway and pull to a stop in front of the gate, Nora says, “I’m getting a feeling. Are you?”
“Yeah.” The splinter digs deeper. If Nora’s feeling it too, I’m much more concerned.
I lower the window to enter the passcode into the keypad, but the buttons are stubbornly dark. I poke atthem, belatedly realizing if the power is out, the mechanism for the gate probably won’t work, either. “Shit.”
Nora leans across my lap to look. “Shoot. If the power’s out, the security system won’t let us in.”
“Is there a manual override?”
Nora thinks. “Inside, there is.” She pauses. “I hate to wake someone up to open it, but it’s better than scaling the fence.”
