“He will soon, according to Neve. Remember how quickly he bounced back before?” She wandered to the kitchen counter and began unpacking their groceries. The thought of cooking and cleaning up the mess afterward weighed her down even more. She’d open a can of soup and grill some cheese sandwiches later. Much later. She still needed to muster energy to call Kaylee and tell her what had happened.
“I need to meet the Freemans in person someday so I can thank them. They are really sweet to let us keep Chance here,” she called over her shoulder.
“They’re nice people. Fall River originals,” he said as he darted back outside. How did he have any energy? He’d been up as long as she had.
Maybe it was the bracing phone call he’d gotten from his father, who had heard about the fire from Noah’s brothers. Their parents had offered to fly home—which Noah had politely declined—and also offered to have Noah and Hailey stay on their ranch outside of Fall River—which he had also declined.
As they slouched on the couch a half hour later, her head on Noah’s chest, she stared at the TV without seeing what played on the screen. “That was really nice of your dad to offer to fly out here.”
Noah grunted noncommittally. “It was probably Mom’s idea, and he goes where she goes.”
“I don’t know your dad, but I think it’s more than that.” She tilted her head to look at him. “Family’s so important. You are one lucky barkeep.”
“Yeah, I am.” He stroked her hair, and his eyes filled with so much tenderness she had to fight back another wave of tears. It was too much, and she laid her head back down.
“You still haven’t told me what happened in your meeting with the Silver Summit partners.” Had that only been yesterday?
He tipped back a beer bottle he’d been nursing since they’d sat down. “They went for it.”
“Allof it? The train too?” she squeaked and popped back up.
His grin spread wide. “They’re all in. It’s gonna be a helluva lot of work, but at least we’ve got some big money behind the effort now.”
“Oh my God! Think of the boost for the town! All because of you.”
“Think of your bookstore! It’s going in at the perfect time. And it’snotbecause of me. It takes a village … or something like that. In this case, itisa village. Hell, I’m too exhausted to know what the fuck I’m saying.”
She beamed at him. “When do we start?”
“We?” he laughed. “I like the sound of that, surfer girl.”
A text chimed on his phone, and his eyebrows crunched together as he scanned it. “Shane says the fire chief is positive the fire was intentionally set.”
“I thought they already knew that.”
“I guess they needed an expert to weigh in and write up a report. Between that, the notes on both our cars, and the video evidence, Sandy won’t be coming around to hurt us.”
His words struck a bell inside her head. “Notes onboth ourcars?”
He straightened up from his slouch and set the bottle on the coffee table. “I got a note too, babe.”
“What? When?”
“The first day I met with Leo Cantrell at Silver Summit. It was on my truck when I came out. I didn’t want to scare you, so I turned it over to Shane right away. I figured it was Ursula.”
A shudder rippled through her. “And I thought it was Cliff.”
“Everyone else thought it was Keating.”
A knock at the door drew a halfhearted bark from Chance. Noah patted Hailey’s knee as he rose to his feet wearily. “I got this.”
When he opened the door, Dixie pushed in, her hands full of something. Dewey brought up the rear with a bag of something else. Dixie deposited her load on the kitchen counter and immediately came to Hailey, sitting beside her and sweeping her up in a hug.
Spent, she gratefully sagged against the woman’s pillowy body. Dixie was like having a mom, an eccentric aunt, and a grandma all in one.
She held Hailey away from her by her shoulders. “Don’t you worry, little china doll. Dixie’s going to be sure you and the boss are right as rain in no time. We brought over some of Dewey’s stew. Does that sound good?”
Dewey grimaced. “Fresh today, girlie. Just for you.”
