Page 18 of Up In Smoke

Ivy looked at him oddly. He’d said it as though looking at the sky gave him enough information to predict the rest of the week. But she tapped on her phone, checking the weather app she had.

She seemed to be the only person in town who didn't feel the snow in their bones or smell it coming on the wind. She figured, around here, most people had lived and died by the storms. If they didn't, their crops did. So it was genetically ingrained in the families to know when bad weather would come their way.

She simply didn't have the touch but,shit,he was right. A big ice storm had come through a short while ago, but a warm snap had bounced back. Now, winter was bearing down on Redemption, Nebraska. Hard.

“Is it bad to have my house without siding?”

He shook his head in a short tight way that said, not only was it bad, it wasvery bad. “I mean, you’re wrapped, but the siding provides protection against water. It makes the water roll away from your home …”

His tone let her know that if the water came right now, she'd be in worse shape than she already was. “And snow?”

“More than a foot and they probably won’t come do the work. The job is pretty seasonal.”

“Well, they aren’t coming! What do I do?” Her ribs felt like they were shrinking. Her jaw clenched involuntarily, the way it sometimes did if she suddenly had too much sugar. Her sinuses felt like there was powder in them and she fought hard not to cry. “How do I even file a claim for that?”

If the siding didn't get put up in time and the house got more damage … Scrambling her way through all the options, she tried to think everything through. If she sustained damage from a storm, it would mean a second claim, a second deductible, and more to fix. She couldn’t handle any more. It would be even longer before she could move back into her own home.

Ivy didn't even realize she was shaking until Luke pulled the phone from her hand and looked for a moment for a place to set it down. But the room was empty. Her bookshelf and all her prized personal library had burned. The pictures of Ivy and Jo when they’d gone hiking last month had been burned to a crisp. So had the one she’d had taken the first day when she’d put the key in the lock and opened the Redemption Public Library for the first time in a year.

She’d inserted her key and watched as one patron strode up to her and asked if she was opening the library. The picture had been taken at an upward angle, because her first patron had been a kid with his mother in tow. She'd asked him his name and if he wanted to take her picture.

She could reprint those. But right now, it was all gone. There were no bookshelves. No TV, no coffee table, not even a chair.

She was shaking harder by the time Luke gave up and slipped her phone into his own back pocket. Reaching out, he enveloped her hands in his. His hands were large and warm, wrapping around hers. She wasn't sure if he was trying to comfort her, or if he was merely trying to hold her still.

He reached up and wiped her cheek, the wetness smearing a tear that she hadn't even realized had fallen.

When she was a kid, these big bad things didn't faze her, because she believed in her family. Though bad things happened, her family always stayed together. Only she'd realized together wasn't always the answer.

So now she was alone.

But that was wrong, Ivy told herself. She had Jo. She wouldn't be out on the street. She had friends. She could couch surf for a while if she had to, until she got a new apartment. She could afford an apartment even if all of her savings was gone.

As Ivy walked herself through a worst-case scenario, Luke wiped her face one more time. Rough fingers brushing against her cheek as he whispered, “Don't worry. I'll take care of this.”

Her shoulders hunched up under her ears involuntarily, the tears kept coming. And she could only ask, “How?”

Chapter Fifteen

“Yes!” Ronan Kelly yelled as a cheer went up around Ivy’s house.

Ivy stood in her front yard, her jacket wrapped tightly around her, her fingers icy.

Luke had been right: The weather had turned already. Though the snow hadn’t arrived, it was a good fifteen degrees colder today.

The cheer wrapped around her house and filled her own chest as they all stood and watched Ronan tap the last corner piece into place. The siding was cheap vinyl, a snap together kind, but it was what she could afford. And Luke was right. It did look good.

It looked good right now because it was new, but it would weather and age quickly, not the kind that was built to last. Her house was now covered in a pale gray wood-grain look. Not the bright white, higher end kind the company was supposed to put on. But her house wouldn’t suffer the damage and the guys had saved her a ton of money.

She felt Luke’s arm wrap around her shoulder and pull her close. “We did it. You’re safe from the storm now.”

The smile on his face was full of genuine pride and Ivy didn't quite know how to respond. She leaned into him and whispered a soft, “Thank you.”

This was one of the things she'd loved growing up: communities taking care of each other. It was one of the reasons she’d chosen Redemption. When she'd settled down here, she’d known that a library that had been closed for almost a year was not her cup of tea, but a small town that needed a library that she could reopen had been. She'd dusted all the books. She'd loved the place. She'd hired several part time employees and opened up a volunteer program from the high school. She'd gathered money for prizes for the local kids, and she'd helped find a few missing persons along the way.

She’d made the effort to familiarize herself with the town and the people in it, and the records of their past relatively early on. Now, the town had come back to help her.

Luke had called the company that was supposed to do the work. And, brooking no argument, he’d canceled her order for a full refund. He’d picked her up at seven that morning and taken her into Lincoln to pick out siding. It had all been so stressful that she had startled when he asked her what color she preferred. In her old world, no one asked if you needed help, they just showed up and did it. And you got the help the men dictated you needed.

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