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“Seventy, at least.”
“Hopefully she didn’t lose power. It got pretty cold last night.”
“I’ll look in on her first.” He handed her a plate with a fat burrito on it and nodded toward the coffee maker. “Help yourself.”
“Aw, caffeine. I’m eternally grateful,” she joked and left her plate on the table while she poured a cup and topped off the one he had sitting on the counter near the stove.
“Are you afraid to see what’s left of your house?” she asked as she slid into a seat.
“I’m not looking forward to it. But it is what it is. I’ll get it cleaned up and put back together.”
“That big a job won’t happen all in one day. You should stay here again tonight.”
He slanted her a glance. “I doubt Remy would approve.”
“I don’t care. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t even need to tell him.”
“What if he finds out?”
“Having you here doesn’t hurt a single thing. We’re not doing anything wrong.”
“I wouldn’t want to cause a problem for you,” he said. “I can get the tree out of the way so I can patch the roof, at least.”
“Well, if it takes longer than you think, you know you have a place.”
When he caught and held her gaze, she could tell he was surprised she’d stand by the offer. “Thank you.”
Her phone went off before she could respond.
Everyone she knew lived in the west. Who would be calling her at six in the morning California time?
When she retrieved it from the coffee table, a picture of her handsome brother filled the screen, and she had to amend the time in her mind. It was seven in Utah, which wasn’t all that early, especially for him. Since he farmed with their father, he got up at the crack of dawn.
Assuming he was calling to check on her since she’d told him about the storm last night, she said to Bo, “Sorry to interrupt breakfast, but it’s my brother. Do you mind if I take it?”
As soon as he indicated he didn’t, she hit the Talk button. “Hey, Jack.”
When there was a long pause before she got a response, she knew something was wrong.
“What is it?” she asked, immediately tensing up. “Are Mom and Dad okay?” Her father had had a heart attack a year ago. She was terrified he’d had another one.
“Everyone...” He cleared his throat. “Everyone’s okay.” He’d had to choke out those words, which made her suspect him of crying. If he was, it’d be the first time she’d ever known her brother to break down—since he was eight years old, anyway.
“Then...what is it?” she asked.
“Ashleigh never came home last night.”
His wife. They’d been high school sweethearts since the ninth grade, gone to Utah State University in Logan, which was only thirty minutes from where they lived, and married when they turned twenty-one. But they had no children. Ashleigh had miscarried three times that Ismay knew about in the past five years. “She hasn’t been in an accident...”
“No.”
“Then...what is it?”
Bo was watching her. He could tell something wasn’t right.
“She left me, Is.”
Ismay sat up straighter. “Left you?! You two have been together since you were kids. Were you having problems?” She’d just talked to him last night, for crying out loud. He’d been waiting for Ashleigh to return from running some errands.
