As she pulled on her clothes and hurried with her coffee to her own room, she thought how surreal it was that she’d only arrived a week ago. She had never dreamed that she’d end up falling for him and that he would feel the same way about her.
She hoped that the children would adjust to the fact that she was now sleeping in his bed. Well, some of the time, at least. She didn’t know how this would play out or what Ryan would want her to do. With his divorce so recent, she guessed they would need to be discreet for now.
They hadn’t been discreet enough, though. Cassie frowned as she remembered walking back down the hall last night, and how Dylan had been sitting up in bed and staring directly at her.
His silence, his watchful stance, had creeped her out, especially since it was obvious that she was heading toward his dad’s room, wrapped in his distinctive burgundy robe.
Cassie wondered if she should take Dylan aside and speak to him about it in private, but the thought of doing that made her nervous.
She drank her lukewarm coffee, nearly dropping the cup as another massive thunderclap seemed to come from directly above the house.
The light flickered and then went out.
“Oh, hell,” she said.
She put her cup down carefully and pulled back the curtains. There was just enough light in the grim, deep gray sky for her to navigate around the bed and leave the room.
“Dad?”
On hearing Madison’s anxious voice, Cassie opened the door.
“Hey, Maddie. I think the lightning’s caused a power outage.”
She ran back to Ryan’s room and grabbed her phone out of her purse. She hadn’t charged it last night, but there was enough battery for her to use the flashlight for a few minutes.
With its help, she set out some clothes for Madison.
“What time’s your play?”
“It starts at eleven but we need to be there at ten to get ready.”
“It’s quarter to eight now, so we still have lots of time,” she reassured her.
She knocked on Dylan’s door and found that he was already up and warmly dressed, reading a book by the light of his phone’s flashlight.
He didn’t mention that he’d seen her last night, or make any reference to why he’d opened his door to watch her passing by.
“Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes,” she said, and headed to the kitchen to see what plan she could make.
Cassie checked the electricity box in the laundry room, but couldn’t find a blown fuse, so she guessed the power in the whole area was down.
She found candles in the broom cupboard and set a few out on the table. Then she did her best to pull together a makeshift breakfast, assembling a pot of tea from the still-warm water in the kettle, and raiding the fridge for sandwich ingredients.
Then she, Dylan, and Madison sat down in the semi-dark kitchen.
“Isn’t this fun?” Cassie said. “It’s just like—”
At that moment she felt something run over her foot.
Cassie let out a piercing shriek.
“What’s happening?” Madison sounded just as startled, and Cassie saw she’d spilled her tea all over the table.
“An animal ran right across my foot,” Cassie explained. “I felt it scampering on my skin.”
Cassie’s heart was pounding and she held her feet up above the floor, spooked by the scrabble of legs she’d felt. What had it been, and where was it now?
“I think I heard it,” Dylan said.
“Whereabouts?” Cassie wished she’d put her shoes on, but she’d been so busy after the power outage that she hadn’t had the chance.
What had it been? A rat? A giant spider?”
Dylan shone his phone’s light onto the baseboards, and leaning down, she saw the gleam of eyes.
“It’s a mouse!”
She clapped her hands at it and the mouse darted away, disappearing under the kitchen counter.
“That must have been so scary,” Madison said.
“It was.”
Now that the mouse had gone, Cassie dared to put her feet on the floor again. She headed to the sink and fetched a dishcloth to mop up the spilled tea.
A minute later, the front door opened and Ryan was back, slipping his drenched parka off his shoulders and kicking off his waterlogged shoes.
“It’s vile out there. Oh, Cassie, you’re a superstar. You got breakfast together.”
“Is the power out everywhere?”
“Yes, the lightning hit a transformer.”
“A mouse just ran over Cassie’s foot and made her scream,” Madison told him, with her mouth full of sandwich.
“What, now?”
“Yes, while we were all sitting here. It went under there.” Cassie pointed.
Ryan grimaced. “They sometimes come in when it storms, I don’t know why. The problem is they don’t like going out again. Last year we ended up with an infestation. We need to buy a few traps immediately.”
“I’ll go,” Cassie offered, seeing that Ryan had only just come in from the rain and hadn’t had breakfast yet.
“You’re an angel. The hardware store’s in the opposite direction from the village. Drive about two miles west, then turn left at the first intersection and you’ll see it.”
Ryan handed her some cash, and Cassie put on her shoes and jacket and made a run for her car.
Ten minutes later, she walked into the hardware store. The small building was already packed with customers and Cassie guessed a lot of people must be doing emergency repairs and leak fixing after the storm.
It took her a while to find the correct aisle, and when she did, she couldn’t see any traps.
A store employee was at the end of the row, stocking shelves.
“We’re out of traps,” he said. “Stock’s coming in next week sometime.”
“It’s an emergency,” Cassie explained. “What would you recommend for a mouse that’s just moved in?”
“Rodenticide’s your best bet. This is our most popular one, and it should sort your problem.”
He handed her a box.
Cassie headed out of the shop, glad that the rain had reduced to a fine drizzle. She was preoccupied, wondering if there would be time for a final run-through of lines with the children
