“Any word on the van?” Mr. Laughton asked.
“No, I need to find Tommy’s number and give him a call. He might have had some damage to his home or something.”
Mrs. Laughton drew a breath in through her teeth. “Oh, I hope everyone’s okay.”
“Me, too,” Espy replied. “I hadn’t heard of anyone getting injured, have you?”
Mrs. Laughton shook her head.
“Have you heard anything about the power being back on?”
“It isn’t yet,” Mr. Laughton said. “We just came from the diner and one of the ladies there said she was told it would be a couple more days.”
Espy gritted her teeth and nodded. “I’ve never lingered so long after a storm. It’s pretty horrifying to see the damage they can do up close.”
“It is,” Mrs. Laughton said. “That’s why we were looking for you.”
“I think Angelica was planning to take y’all back today,” Espy said, heading off the question. “I’ll stay behind for the other van. I know y’all need to get home.”
“Yes, she told us,” Mrs. Laughton said. “So we came over to ask if it was okay if we waited with you.”
Espy looked from one to the other, doing her best not to let her jaw drop. “What? You want to stay?”
“They need help,” Mr. Laughton said with a shrug. “We have a few more days on my vacation. At least we’d feel like we were doing something that made a difference.”
A surge of adrenaline ran through Espy. She’d made the right choice taking the Laughtons with her and Javi in the SUV. Look what a difference it had made in their attitudes! “Oh my gosh, I think that would be wonderful, and I’m sure there is a lot we could do while we wait. I know some of the neighborhoods are in pretty bad shape, and they could use some hands clearing the roads and sidewalks. That would be amazing. If you let me go call Tommy to get his status, we can head out to one of the harder-hit neighborhoods together.”
Mr. Laughton held up a hand. “We don’t need you to worry about guiding us. We know where we want to go help. We just wanted to make sure it was okay if we drove back with you when the van is ready.”
Espy struggled not to sputter her surprise and gratitude. “No, that would be great. Wonderful. And I promise I’ll make the drive extra fun. Not like Angelica.”
That prompted a smile from the surprisingly serene-looking couple, and they held hands and took off in the direction of Javi’s mom’s neighborhood.
Espy almost ran back to the motel to relay the conversation to her sister. Angelica would never believe it.
CHAPTER13
When Javi drove into town that night after his shift, the town square was busier than usual, probably because the power remained out in some of the neighborhoods. But a crowd gathered outside the theater, so he parked in front of Austin’s place to go investigate.
Relief flowed through him when he saw Esperanza walking toward the motel with the Laughtons and Gavin, her head thrown back in laughter
“Esperanza! Hey!”
She turned when she heard her name, and her smile widened. “Hey, there, officer.”
He’d forgotten he was wearing his uniform until she said those words, and flicked her gaze from his face to the uniform, her smile shifting to…something else. Suddenly he wished the Laughtons and Gavin gone.
“I drove by the motel and didn’t see the van. Thought you might have gone.”
“No, Angelica took back Mr. Underwood and Mr. Blanton, and Gavin’s parents, but we’re all waiting for Tommy to finish the van before we head back. We all helped out cleaning up your mom’s neighborhood today, and Mr. Fraser opened the theater tonight for free and let everyone have popcorn, sodas and sit in the air conditioning.”
Javi’s eyebrows reached his hairline. “Mr. Fraser did that?” He’d known the man all his life and he didn’t have a generous bone in his body. Most movies he showed had been streaming for years by the time he put them in his theater.
“Yes, and I probably shouldn’t have had so much popcorn.” Esperanza stepped forward. “Did you eat?”
“Ah.” Was she issuing an invitation? Because he didn’t want to turn that down. His time with her was limited, and he wanted to take advantage. “I had lunch in Kimmel. They said they barely even got rain.”
“That’s how it works sometimes,” Esperanza said. “I heard Hailey’s is doing takeout. I can walk over there with you if you want to get something to eat.”
