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Another stretch of listening. “No, don’t wake Penny. I only wanted to make sure she was okay.”

Whatever Janice said next made Kate quiet. Wes looked toward the dark kitchen window. Rain streamed across the glass.

“She knows I love her,” Kate said. “Tell her I’ll see her in the morning.”

Wes’s hands tightened against the counter. Kate listened a moment longer. Then she said goodnight and ended the call. She came into the kitchen with her phone still in her hand.

“Penny’s fine. She fell asleep on Dad while he was reading to her, and he’s refusing to move because he says he doesn’t want to wake her.”

“That sounds cozy.”

“Mom says his left arm went numb twenty minutes ago.”

Wes smiled. “Eileen’s staying there too?”

“Yes. Mom made up the spare room for her. Nobody wanted her driving back to the Lodge tonight.”

“So you don’t need to worry about any of them.”

“No.”

Wes waited. He could hear the rain, the refrigerator and his own heartbeat. Kate looked at the wet jacket hanging by the door. Then at him. Wes forced himself to say the thing his bear did not want him to say. “I can still take you back.”

“I know you can.”

“If you want to go, we should do it now.”

Kate was quiet for a few seconds. Then she crossed the kitchen until she stood in front of him. “I don’t want to go.”

Wes did not touch her yet. He needed to be certain he was hearing what she intended him to hear, not what he wanted. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“The weather is going to get worse.”

“I know.”

“And the road is still open now.”

“That’s why I’m telling you now.” Kate put her phone on the counter. “I could go back to Mom and Dad. Penny’s there, she’s safe, and there’s nothing stopping me.”

She reached for his hand. “I want to stay here with you.”

For once, his bear had nothing to add. Wes closed his fingers around hers. He had imagined Kate choosing him in a hundred different ways since the day she arrived, although he had tried hard not to. None of those imagined moments had looked like this.

They were both soaked from the rain. There was mud drying on the bottom of his jeans. A container of Janice’s stew sat unopened on the counter between them, and somewhere outside a storm was moving across land Wes had spent years caring for. Nothing about the moment was perfect. He did not need it to be. Kate had been given a clear road home. She was staying.

Wes lifted her hand and pressed his mouth to her knuckles before drawing her against him. She came willingly, wrapping both arms around his waist. For a while he simply held her. He could feel the cold damp of her sweater through his shirt and the way her breathing gradually slowed against him.

“We’re going to ruin your floor,” she murmured.

Wes glanced down at the water and mud they had tracked across the kitchen. “The floor will survive.”

Kate tilted her head back. “So will we, probably.”

“Probably?”

“I’m reserving judgment until I’ve had a hot shower.”