Page 110 of Hero for the Holidays

“Lila’s dog. They... The shelter called. They found her.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yes. They said they’ll hold on to the dog for us, but I’d need to leave now, and I’d have to stay overnight. I’ll just go and...”

“I want to go with you.”

“What’s she going to do overnight without both of us?”

“We can find out if she wants to have a sleepover at the King house. Maybe Rue will hang out and show her how to make bread.”

“She better not. I want to show Lila how to make bread.”

“Then maybe she can teach Rue to crochet.”

He arranged it, and if Lila thought it was strange, she didn’t say. And before they could really make plans, Landry and Fia were on the road to go and fetch Sunday.

“This is like... Well, it’s like finding Lila in the first place,” she said.

“Yeah. It is. Amazing.”

“I realize that we probably have some talking to do about the move,” said Landry.

“What about it?” Fia asked.

“Just the... You know, we’re planning on making it. And I suppose we need some ground rules.”

“Like having separate bedrooms?”

“Yep,” he said.

“Right. Well. We’ve got to make sure that we keep everything centered on Lila,” said Fia.

“Of course,” he said. “Absolutely.”

“She’s the most important thing.”

“Yeah.”

They got all the way up to Portland, and decided to stay in the same hotel that they had when they were with Lila.

“Two rooms?”

Tension wound through her. Knotting in her stomach.

“No,” she said.

Because when they got back home, when they moved into the farmhouse, they were going to have separate rooms. They were going to be good.

They were going to make it about Lila. But she wasn’t here.

She wasn’t here.

He looked at her, his jaw going tense. “Right.”

“One room,” he said. “King bed.”

They were given a key card and a room number. And they took the elevator up to the sixth floor. They walked down the hall, and Landry put the card in the reader. Her stomach got even tighter.

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