The consistent trickling continued to echo throughout the house.
With a groan, she forced herself to turn on the bedside lamp before crawling out of bed. The coldness of the floorboards slipped up her legs, but it wasn’t just the floor that was cold.
Jesus, she really needed to find someone to fix the heat in this house. Maybe she’d just pay someone from out of town an exorbitant amount of money to drive down here to do the work.
She grabbed her robe, which felt far too thin, and slung it over her shoulders before stepping out of the bedroom. The second she switched on the living room light, she saw it.
Water trickling from the ceiling light fixture. From the freaking light? What the hell?
Quickly, she turned the light off, not sure if having it on would cause some sort of electrical short circuit, and instead used the flashlight on her phone.
Great. This was just what she needed.
Water pooled on her coffee table…her brand-new coffee table. Everything was soaking wet. Fantastic.
In the hall closet, she grabbed a handful of towels, then got a bucket from the laundry room. Back in the living room, she placed the bucket under the dripping water and started wiping up the mess on the table.
The water squished beneath her feet on the rug. Her poor rug…another new item. Would it dry okay or would she have to buy a new one?
When the table was dry and the rug as dry as she was going to get it, she climbed onto the coffee table and attempted to inspect the ceiling light more closely.
Okay, the water wasn’t coming through the actual light. It appeared to be coming through a gap on the side. Still, it was close enough to the light that it was something she didn’t want to mess with.
Lifting her phone so it was closer to the hole, she rose to her toes to have a closer look—but because her feet were damp, her foot slipped. A yelp screeched from her lungs as she fell backward. She swung her arm behind her to catch herself, only to have pain blast throughout her arm as she landed hard on the floor.
Goddamn, that hurt!
Grabbing her elbow, she groaned and rolled to her side. For a moment, she just breathed through the ache.
Should she go to a doctor? Was anything even open at this time in Misty Peak? Of course, the hospital would be, but a sore shoulder barely classified as an emergency. And even if she did want to go to the hospital, there was no one to call to drive her. Most people had at least one person they could ask, but the only person she had was Harper, and the woman had recently gone through a huge ordeal. She couldn’t call her at this hour.
It was fine. There was no way it was broken, because she’d be in a lot more pain, right? She just had to get herself off the floor, ice it, and get back to sleep, then with a bit of luck, she’d be okay to drive herself to work in a few hours.
Emotion welled in her chest, but she pushed it down. She’d been through tougher situations, and she’d get through this too.
Words her mother had spoken to her flashed in her head…words originally spoken by Mary Anne Radmacher that Tilly repeated to herself time and again when things got hard and heavy.
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.”
That was what she needed to do…try again tomorrow. Or technically, later today.
Slowly, she forced herself to her feet. Ice, sleep, work…then she’d call for a doctor’s appointment. She’d be okay.
“Found her.”
Kayden lifted his radio at the sound of Jake’s voice. “Where was she?”
“She’d veered off path and ended up close to the eastern boundary, near the cliff edge.”
Damn. “Is she okay?”
Wind sounded over the line before Jake answered. “A bit rattled but uninjured. I’ll bring her back.”
“Need backup?”
“Nah, I got it.”
Kayden set his radio back in his holster. The fifteen-year-old tourist had been missing for a good hour after she’d split up from her family…too long.
