I roll my eyes, and he steps toward me and lifts my chin up. “Tell me what you’re stewing about. You mentioned your sister.”
“I try to call her every day. Even though we could go days or weeks without talking before, it’s what we decided on. Sametime—on her commute to her yoga studio—to check in, so…” I cover my face with my hands and try to breathe. It’s just one day. It’s okay. We told each other that it might happen.
“Wren.”
I look up at him. “The calls are for her and me both. So I can talk to someone who loves me—so I don’t feel so alone, and so she can hear my voice, and she’ll know I’m okay. She’s my big sister and”—I choke out a sob—“I swear she thinks she’s my mom.”
“You can’t call her now?”
I shake my head. “I can try later. Around the time she would be driving home. She keeps her flip phone in her glovebox.”
He wraps his arms around me and holds me.
I lean into him and accept his comfort. “You’re not alone, Wren,” he whispers against my hair. He holds me until I pull away, and then he takes my hand. “Let’s keep you busy until you can call Cat again.” He leads me to the kitchen. It’s open to the sweeping windows of the great room on one side and the sliding glass doors that open to a patio on the other. The great expanse of the pasture beyond is a swash of green with dots of yellow, white, and red. I walk to the windows and take it all in. As if he’s reading my mind, he says, “This isn’t even the best time to see it. The sun rises right over that pasture every morning while I have my coffee.”
I turn to him and see the pride and joy in his eyes. “You love it here.”
“I do. But I don’t own this property. I take pride in my work, and the Mays are my family, but I have my own property, and maybe someday that’ll be my home.” He crosses his arms. “With my wife.”
“You… have a wife?”
He laughs. “Almost. I just need a little bit more time for her to see what a catch I am.” He turns, and a swirl of happiness,bewilderment, and an unexpected sense of peace churns through me until something pricks me on the butt and says that maybe I’ve misunderstood because it can’t really be that easy. I can’t really be having a second chance at love that arrives so gently and sweetly. I’m staring at him, my head tilted to the side, when he turns back to me.
“Did I confuse you, Tiny?” He grins and hands me a mug. “Found this. Lacy must have snuck it in. It’s some kind of decaf peachy green tea. And Ava gave me the cookies. She keeps me well supplied with homemade goodies. She says I need to sweeten up.” His phone buzzes, and he tugs it out of his back pocket. “It’s Ned.” He sets it down on the table and pushes speaker. “Wren and I are here.”
“I’m sending you the photos of the person we caught going down the path past your cottage,” Ned says, and John’s phone immediately dings. He opens the text and taps on a photo.
“That’s Sandy,” John says.
“Yep. He walks in from the forest every once in a while. Hops the fence and swims in Heaven’s Spring for his knee. I can’t say he didn’t break in and look for something to eat. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s gotten into trouble. But I also can’t say he did break in.” He sends a video, and John opens it. “That’s a little while later.” Monster’s racing down the path, his ears and tail back. He stops, sits on his haunches, growling ferociously, deep in his throat, his hackles raised and ears back.
“He was either trying to chase something or someone away or he did chase something or someone away. Maybe Sandy. It wasn’t caught on any of the feeds.” He sends another photo, the left corner circled in yellow highlighter. “This is a few minutes later, captured on Tank’s cottage feed. “Gigi rambling past. Could have been her that set Monster off. If so, glad there wasn’t a tussle. If it had been Gigi versus Monster, Gigi would have felt some of it, but Monster would have been in bad shape.”
I cover my face and groan.
“Wren, since we don’t know exactly what happened,” Ned says, “do you want me to file a report for a possible break-in? Not sure if it’ll come to anything, since Monster charged right out of that screen, and there isn’t evidence of breaking and entering. And just that one light on. If I do, they’ll want to talk to you.”
“No. Please don’t, Ned. I probably just left the porch door open.” I pause.Did I?“I’m sorry, Ned. I owe you for some new screening.”
“No worries. It needed changing anyway, and I have some replacement screening in Cottage 13.”
I finish my tea while John chats with Ned. When he hangs up, he walks to the door and opens it just as Danni is walking up the porch steps, a man behind her.
“Hi, Wren, this is my husband, Bear. Bear, this is Wren. She’s staying at Heaven for a while.”
“Heard you had a fall,” Bear says.
“I sprained my wrist in a car accident not too long ago, and I may have reinjured it.”
“Did Fox tell you I was a medic in the military?”
I nod.
“Mind if I look?” He sets a leather, zippered bag on the table.
Danni sits next to me and watches as Bear checks my wrist.
“Fox did an okay job wrapping this.”
