Page 16 of Mystery in the Mountains

There, standing at the door with a toolbox, was Abe. A concerned expression colored his face.

“Did you know that step is broken?” he asked.

Sunny roughly chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, I know . . . there’s a lot broken here.”

Smiling and tapping the doorframe, he said, “We’ll get it fixed. It’s still got good bones.”

“Come in.”

As Abe crossed into her house, she could almost feel it sigh with relief. Like the cavalry had shown up. Maybe being able to feel your house was weird, but Sunny was used to weird.

“Wow. Are you staying here?” Abe said, taking in the surroundings and fiddling with the loose banister.

“Yeah—at least I was until last night,” she said, running her hand through her hair. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Sure, you got?—”

“Sweet tea?” they said in unison.

She laughed, and for the first time since returning, she felt a little like her old self.

“I do. Let’s go get a glass.”

He followed her into the kitchen, inspecting the house. She grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured him some tea.

“So . . . how long are you back?”

He asked it like it was small talk, but that was not a small-talk conversation for them.

“I’m back.”

“For good?” he asked, eyeing her.

“Yeah, I’m back. I’m ready to fix things.”

“Good,” he said before taking a long drink and setting the glass down with a soft clink. “Now, you said you have a leaky roof.”

“Yeah, over my bedroom.”

“I brought my ladder. I’ll get up there and put the tarp up, but I’m going to take a few measurements, and when we get a couple nice days in the forecast and get a more permanent fix.”

Abe finished his glass of tea and headed out to his truck.

Sunny watched him go. He wasn’t Asher, but he felt comfortable like Asher did.

The ladder clunked on the side of her house as Abe climbed her roof.

Like with most of this house, she was in a stop-the-bleeding situation. Next step was assessing damage to see how to best fix things, but it felt fixable.

She turned the music up and got back to work. The sound of Abe on her roof comforted her as she went through a few more boxes.

After a while, there was another knock on the door. She opened it to a big burly Abe who was wiping his brow with a bandana.

“I got the tarp secured. The roof on the main house looks good, but you need a new roof on the addition.”

“Okay,” said Sunny, trying not to panic.

She could not afford a new roof.

---