end, he’d looked. Because he had to be sure.
And then he’d been the one to officially notify his brother. And nothing in all of his life, in all of his training, had prepared him to stand on the front porch in his uniform and tell his older brother that his beautiful wife wasn’t coming home. Not that night, not any night after.
Damn trees. Damn road. Two people they’d loved lost that way.
Though in their dad’s case, he’d been at clear fault. Alcohol had caused his crash. Jessie had probably swerved to miss a deer, but they’d never know for sure.
“Oh,” Sadie said, her voice muted.
“So he comes by his attitude honestly,” Eli said, walking down the stairs to the driveway. “You want to ride in the patrol car?”
She looked at him, a brow raised. “It’s a short walk. Anyway, I don’t want to have any flashbacks.”
“Emotionally traumatized?”
“Completely.”
“Good. I probably kept your ass out of trouble.”
“Ugh,” she said. “Do not act like you did me any favors. What helped was getting the hell out of this town.”
“Is that what helped?”
“Yeah. There’s not enough options here. And there’s way too much free time. I badly needed to escape.”
“So why are you back?”
She sighed loudly. “Can I get away with repeating what I told you earlier?”
“No.”
“Well, fine. That is just a damn good question.” She took a big step and her foot landed in a pile of sticks that crunched loudly beneath her boot, before she shifted, her other foot making contact with soft dirt as she continued on toward the Catalog House.
“And you don’t have the answer?”
“You know...you have to live somewhere. And I’ve had a hard time finding a place that didn’t...suck. So I’m back here. Because—” she turned partway and offered him a shrug and a sheepish smile, the setting sun igniting a pink halo around her pale hair “—well, I am. And currently, all I’ve achieved is drowned-rat status.”
“Don’t go near the barn. Connor has rat traps.”
“And cats, I hear,” she said, tromping through the tree line and into the driveway of her...his...house. He followed, frowning involuntarily as he caught a glimpse of the bare flower beds. Sure, all that had been in them before was overgrown weeds, but she had them completely stripped now.
“Those are the rat traps I was talking about.”
“Don’t talk about cats that way in front of Toby. He’s sensitive.”
“He’s probably been talking to you about his feelings too much.”
“Was that a therapist joke?” she asked, moving ahead of him and up the stairs to open the front door.
“Yeah, it was. Excuse me, I’m out of practice with jokes.”
“Obviously.”
Her cat was there, on the kitchen table, looking at him pointedly. As if he sensed that Eli had absolutely no use for him, and he was greatly offended by it. Except Eli knew that wasn’t it because it was a cat, and cats had no higher consciousness, as evidenced by their reaction to string.
He stared back at the cat.
“He is unimpressed with you,” she said.
“The feeling is mutual. Now hang on a second while I try to figure out where the water shutoff is.”
“That would be helpful,” she said. “Water shutoff valves would be helpful.”
“Connor should have left you a list of that stuff. Where it all is. Fuse boxes and water mains. Though I’m betting he doesn’t even know where it is here.”
“How long has it been since anyone’s lived here?”
“A couple of years. An older lady rented it for about ten years, until she died.”
“This place is kind of full of sad history,” Sadie said.
“Yeah. Welcome to the Garrett Ranch, where the motto is, if it doesn’t kill you...just wait.”
“That is distasteful. I’m sure.”
“Completely, but also the story of our lives. Now, I’m willing to bet your shutoff is somewhere inconvenient, like...maybe the shed outside?”
“I haven’t looked.”
“All right, come on. If we find it, I can show you how to shut it off.”
“Maybe I know how to shut it off,” she said, following him back out the door and down the stairs. “Maybe I’m a water-valve expert.”
“But you aren’t,” he said, opening the door to the shed.
“Fine. I’m not. But I usually have nearby landlords who...do this for me. Which is sort of what’s happening now, except you’re involving me. Although, I have to say, I have never had a pipe just...explode all over me before. Not a euphemism.”
“How could that be...?”
Her eyes widened and she looked at him meaningfully. “Pipes...burst...liquid all over the... Oh, wow. Think about it. Please don’t make me say it. And I’m going to stop talking now. Please shut my water off.”
Suddenly, he got it. Heat shot from his face down to his groin. This was what happened when he spent six—okay, honestly, it was closer to seven—months without sex. His mind was completely void of anything that went beyond boobs and the innuendo that had just popped up. So to speak. It was enough to...well, as she’d put it, explode his pipe.
He did not have time for this. He didn’t have the patience for it, either.
“Fine,” he growled, stalking to the pipe that was sticking out of the ground in the back of the old building, wrapped in a thick swath of insulation. He reached down and pushed the valve up. “So now your water’s off. Direct me to your flood and I can see if there’s a quick fix that won’t require you to go without water all night.”
“It’s in the upstairs bathroom. So...back to the house. And I hope you’re enjoying this tour of...things that are not finished in the yard,” she said, leading them both back to the house.
“What are you doing with the flower bed?” he asked, looking at the bare dirt.
“I don’t know... Something. I was hoping someone could tell me which plants you...plant here this time of year. I don’t know anything about flowers or grass or... I’m going to do some investigating tomorrow.”
“Haven’t
