“Lexi, can you lead Alice inside.”
“Yes.” The headphones are still on her head, and it looks like I’ll need to have another talk with her about listening into conversations. She used to do it all the time when I was with her dad.
We all open the doors at the same time. Lexi hops out of the backseat and our pup follows after her before running ahead and pulling her toward the back of the house. My poor kid is slipping on bits of ice and I hope she doesn’t fall.
“I guess she remembers the way.” I lean over the seat and grab her bed before getting out.
“Most likely. I’m just glad I found her that night. Things could have turned out really bad.”
He’s not lying. I’ve seen people who’ve posted about their missing dog and they never found them. Or worse, they did and it wasn’t a happy ending. I don’t know what we would have done if Peter hadn’t found her.
“Thank you, again, for that.”
“It’s no problem. Anyone would have done the same thing.”
Not likely. It’s cute that he still believes the best in everyone, though. I wonder how that works out for him in the family business. I know you can’t be gullible when you’re making those types of decisions. Though I’m not sure what he does exactly. I guess I’ll find out more while we’re here.
He walks beside me as we approach the back door. “I want you and Alexandra to make yourselves at home. My house is your house while you’re here.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate it.” I wait for him to open the door, Lexi and Alice stand off to the side. “My brother probably does, too.”
He just turns the knob. What in the world? He doesn’t even lock it. I remember growing up like that as kids, but I lock the door even when I’m home most days. He has a level of trust I clearly don’t.
“Aren’t you scared of getting robbed?” Lexi asks as she takes a step inside, Alice trailing behind her.
“Not really.” Peter shrugs, waiting for me to go in. “If I lived in town, maybe. But I’m toward the back of the property. They would have to go by a few of my siblings’ house before they made it to me.”
“Who’s to say they wouldn’t?”
My child. She would argue with a wall if I let her.
“Most people aren’t like that around here.” He follows after me and scoots by to lead us out of the mudroom. We have no choice but to follow since there isn’t any power. “On top of that, Pierce has cameras throughout the property. If someone did decide to break in, it would be easy to find them. Especially in a town this small.”
“You’ve got a point.” Lexi concedes. “How is your house so warm without electricity?”
As we get closer to what I assume is the living room, there’s an orange glow coming from the far wall.
“Because, I made sure I had a fireplace when I built the house.” He moves to a stack of wood and adds more to the fire. “Living way out here, we deal with more power outages than most when a big storm comes through.”
“Is that something we have to look forward to?” I set Alice’s bed in an open space beside the sofa.
“Most likely, but we haven’t really had any bad storms until recently.”
“So, this isn’t a first time occurrence in the past year?”
“A rain storm came through in the Fall and the winds tore some pieces off the roof at the winery. Plus, no power for about a day. This is different, though. I think a lot of people are feeling the effects of this ice storm we had.”
Lexi sits on the sofa and unclips the leash from Alice’s collar. “They are. It seems like most of the state aside from a few areas.”
“How do you know that?” I ask her.
“Social media.” She rolls her eyes as if I should know that.
“I didn’t realize it was that widespread,” Peter says before motioning for me to take a seat. “Social media isn’t really my thing.”
“Mine either.” I collapse next to Lexi. I have the one platform, but rarely get on it. There’s too much gossip, and people say hurtful shit when they’re behind a screen. I’m glad it wasn’t around when I was a kid. High school would have been so much worse.
“Y’all stay put. I’ll get your things and then I’ll show you where your rooms are.”
