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What time do you leave in the morning? her sister texted. I’m worried about the storm.

Hannah stared at the screen, then decided this required more than a text thread. She definitely had words for her sister.

She called Holly, who picked up on the first ring.

“Hey, you,” Holly said. “Tell me you decided not to go.”

“Why?” Hannah demanded. “Just . . . why?”

“Because of the storm,” Holly said, her tone cautious. “Isn’t that what we’re talking about?”

“Why would you ever think it was a good idea to suggest to Wes that we should carpool to Utah tomorrow?” Hannah countered.

Silence hummed between them for a heartbeat.

“I was worried about you being alone with the kids,” Holly said finally. “And when he told me he also was going to Salt Lake tomorrow, it made sense for you all to go together.”

“In what universe does that make sense?” Hannah asked. “Because it is not this one.”

“In the same universe where you told me, quite emphatically, that you have absolutely no feelings for the man anymore,” Holly said. “If that’s true, what’s the problem with taking a road trip together?”

“Where would you like me to start?” Hannah muttered, pacing down the hall and back, keeping her voice low so she wouldn’t wake the kids.

“Is this payback for last Christmas?” she asked. “When I might have hinted to a certain hot navy helicopter pilot that he should be your plus-one to the wedding you had to attend?”

Holly snorted. “First of all, there was no ‘hint’ involved. You flat out told Ryan to take me. Second, why would I want payback when that ‘fake dating’ arrangement turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me?”

Hannah couldn’t argue with that. Holly was now Mrs. Hot Navy Helicopter Pilot and deeply in love in a way she never had been with Lydia’s jerk-face father.

“I wasn’t thinking about last year at all,” Holly went on. “I was simply worried about you on the road by yourself. He was going to the same place on the same day. It made sense.”

Hannah wanted to stay mad. She really did. But this was Holly, her other half. The sister who always, always had her back, even when her methods were questionable.

“I honestly don’t see the problem,” Holly said softly now. “Unless you were lying when you said you have no feelings for Wes anymore.”

Hannah had no answer for that.

Of course she still had feelings for him. His unexpected reappearance had demonstrated that in about three seconds. All the old warmth had come rushing back, right alongside the sharp memories of pain and rejection.

She sighed, leaning her head against the cool hallway wall. “We’re going to have to spend hours on the road,” she said. “What are we going to talk about?”

“You don’t have to talk about anything,” Holly pointed out. “You’ve got two grade-schoolers as built-in conversation generators. Riley and Carter will fill every empty second if you let them.”

Hannah smiled despite herself. That was likely true.

“It’s still not something I’m looking forward to,” she admitted.

“You’ll get through it,” Holly said gently. “It’s a couple of days. You’ve survived much worse.”

Hannah closed her eyes, picturing Morgan in the hospital, pale but smiling when she saw her children through a screen every night. Picturing Riley’s and Carter’s faces brighten with delight at being with their mom, after all the fear and uncertainty of the past few weeks.

She straightened. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “I will.”

For them, she would somehow figure out how to protect her heart.

Chapter 17

Dawn was only a pale rim along the horizon as Wes turned toward Hannah’s house. The world felt hushed and suspended, the kind of winter morning where sound seemed to absorb into the snow instead of bouncing back.