Free The Comforts of Home by Jodi Thomas

picking me up.”
    “Any time,” he said, wishing he’d said Every time .
    She leaned over and patted his knee. “It’s late. I’d better turn in.”
    “Walk me to the porch steps,” he said as he stood.
    He bundled in his coat and she wrapped a shawl that Martha Q kept by the door around her shoulders. They walked out, hand in hand, onto the porch. The air was damp and crisp. A low wind crackled in the bare branches surrounding the inn. For Tyler the place was beautiful and lonely at the same time. The old house stood in the middle of town but had the feel of being alone. He’d felt like that most of his life.
    “Good night,” he said as he raised his arms.
    She moved into them and for a long while they just hugged.
    When she pul ed away, he tried to keep his voice casual as he said, “You can come over to my house for a nap any time, Kate.”
    “And you’l make me soup and ham sandwiches?”
    “I don’t have to. We didn’t eat the other ones. They’re stil in the fridge.”
    She made a face and he kissed her on the nose.
    Something he was sure no one ever did to the major.
    She smiled and rushed inside, saying she was freezing.
    On his way home he stopped by the cemetery. He rarely asked anyone to lock the cemetery at dusk for him, and even though he knew Calvin or one of the groundsmen would have, he liked to be the one who made the final check. It was his responsibility. It had been since his father handed him the keys to his first car.
    The old Ford Mustang was parked by the back gate again. In the dark he couldn’t even tel the color. Dark blue?
    Black? Tyler decided it was far too cold to walk across the cemetery to check it out tonight, and the back road was too muddy to risk getting stuck.
    He’d come back tomorrow morning before he took Kate back to Amaril o to catch her flight. She didn’t go to work until Monday, but she’d explained that she needed a day to unpack. He didn’t much like the idea that unpacking ranked above spending an extra day with him, but he told himself he understood.
     

Chapter 10
MIDNIGHT
    REAGAN TRUMAN’S CELL PHONE CLAMORED IN
    THE DARKNESS. It took several rings for her to find it.
    “Hel o,” she mumbled, hoping she didn’t wake her uncle in the next room.
    “Rea, this is Noah.”
    “It’s late, Noah.” She pul ed the string on an old Tiffany-style lamp that was probably five times her age. Something was wrong; not even Noah cal ed this late.
    “I know, Rea, but I need to talk to you.”
    She shoved her hair out of her face and tried to force sleep away. “Al right, what’s up?”
    “I’m in the hospital, Rea. I was hurt tonight in Memphis.”
    “How bad?” She laughed nervously. She’d almost asked if he was stil alive.
    There was a long pause on the line. “I don’t know. Bad.
    Broken arm, two ribs, but it’s my back that has me worried.” He didn’t speak for a moment. When he began again, he sounded more like a frightened boy than a man of twenty.
    “I’m hurt bad enough to maybe kick me off the circuit. When I hit the dirt, I was out cold. They said I kept yel ing your name in the ambulance, but I don’t remember. Al I remember is the pain.”
    “Noah, what can I do? Do you want me to go over to your folks’ house? I think they’re in town. I could cal your sister, Alex.”
    “No, I don’t want them to worry. I know Mom. She’l freak out and Dad wil start lecturing me like I’m stil a kid. I don’t want them to know anything until I know how serious it is.
    They’re not tel ing me much yet.” He paused, and she knew he was fighting to keep his voice calm. “Rea, I got to face this before I ask them to. If it’s nothing, they don’t even need to know. If it’s crippling, I got to have a plan.” She understood. Noah had always been their positive, sunny child. The McAl ens had already lost one son eight years ago. She’d seen the panic in their eyes once when Noah had been admitted to the hospital after an accident.
    She