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He opened the door and they spilled inside together. The sudden quiet was almost startling. Rain hammered against the roof, but the walls softened it. Wes pushed the door shut and locked it, then stood for a moment listening to the wind outside.

Kate peeled back her hood. Water ran from the ends of her hair onto her jacket.

Wes looked at the puddle already forming around their boots. “I should probably apologize for bringing you into this.”

“You didn’t. I walked over here carrying stew.”

“You could have stayed under the porch.”

Kate gave him a patient look. “You were out there trying to hold down something twice my size in a rising wind. I wasn’t going to stand by and watch.”

He liked that answer. He could have managed the tarp eventually. But she had seen work that needed doing and stepped in beside him, without making it a question of whether he could do it alone.

His bear understood the difference. She works with us.

Wes took off his wet jacket and hung it on a hook. Kate did the same. Her sweater beneath it was damp across the shoulders, and the knees of her jeans had darkened with rain. He wanted to pull her against him. Instead, he looked at the clock. The road between Russet Hill and Bramblewood was still fine. The rain had only just begun in earnest, and there had been no warning of flooding or fallen trees. That might not remain true for long.

“Kate.”

Something in his tone made her look up.

“If you’re going back tonight, I should drive you now.”

Her expression changed. Not much. Enough that Wes knew she understood why he had said it. He continued before she could answer. “The road’s open. It’s wet, but there’s nothing dangerous about it yet. I don’t know what another hour will do.”

Kate looked toward the window in the door. “I could walk.”

“No.”

That earned him the faintest smile. “I thought you didn’t make my decisions for me.”

“I don’t. I’m still not letting you walk through an orchard in a storm after dark.”

“That sounds suspiciously like making a decision.”

“I’ll happily argue about the distinction after I’ve driven you home.”

Her smile remained, but she didn’t move toward her jacket. “Let me call Mom first.”

Wes nodded and carried the stew into the kitchen while Kate took out her phone. He deliberately gave her space. He set the container on the counter, found a saucepan and then stopped because he wasn’t hungry yet. Or rather, he probably was, but food had dropped somewhere below the fact that Kate was standing in his mudroom deciding whether she was about to leave. His bear had gone very still.

Wes rested his hands against the edge of the counter. He had known what Kate was to him before he ever saw her. That had never been the difficult part. The difficult part was standing in his own kitchen, saying nothing, while she decided. Would she ask him to get the truck keys? He would, if she did. Wes kept his hands where they were and waited.

Kate’s voice carried from the next room. “Hi, Mom. How’s Penny?”

A pause.

“No, I’m fine. Wet, but fine. We got caught outside finishing something.”

Another pause, longer this time. Wes could not hear Janice’s answers and made no attempt to.

Kate laughed softly.

Wes pictured Penny asleep somewhere in the farmhouse, probably after insisting she was not tired.

“Is Eileen still there?”

Pause. “Good. I’m glad she didn’t try to go back to the Lodge.”