They held her close, and Michaela absorbed their heat and their love.
“We have to meet Grant and Andrew out at your place in an hour.” She read regret in Lewis’s gaze. “But we’ll come right back here as soon as we can, baby girl. That’s a promise. For now, let’s go get that coffee you mentioned.”
“Is there coffee in the house to be had?”
“I’m pretty sure there is,” Randy said.
Getting dressed didn’t require a lot of thinking on Michaela’s part. She didn’t have a lot to choose from. The guys had emptied her drawers and grabbed a few things from her closet, but she figured she’d lost at least half of her clothes.
And she remembered then that they’d had some things stored at her place, too. But they hadn’t bothered with any of it.
“I guess we could all hit the mall later today,” she said.
“We still have some things at Jenny’s,” Lewis said. “But, yeah, that sounds like a plan.”
There was coffee available in this temporary house—as well as bacon, sausage, eggs, milk, juice, and a couple loaves of homemade bread. A butter dish sat in the fridge, as did a jar of strawberry jam that looked homemade and probably was. The Keurig on the counter was accompanied by a rack that held her favorite coffee, as well as a couple brands she knew her men preferred.
“I’ve always considered that as long as there’s coffee and toilet paper, I can handle the world.” She grinned as her two men burst out laughing.
“That’s an…interesting outlook,” Randy said. His cheeky grin told her he’d considered using another adjective, perhaps one related to toilet paper.
She didn’t want a full breakfast, which Lewis had offered to cook even if it made them late for their meeting. Instead, she opted for a piece of toast with butter and jam. Her stomach told her that while the rest of her was feeling better after the events of the very early morning, her gut wasn’t quite ready to welcome much more than toast and coffee.
They walked through their new, temporary home. “I can’t believe they did this for us,” she said to the guys. “This place is completely furnished. Who does that?”
“The families of Lusty, Texas, apparently,” Randy said.
“The first night we were here, there was a huge gathering at Ari’s place,” Lewis said. “We heard the tales of how the family pulls together whenever there’s a need. More than one cousin was the recipient of a speedy move.”
Michaela shook her head. No wonder so many of the newcomers who arrived in Lusty stayed. Who would not want to be a part of the kind of community this was? Close knit, caring, and inclusive. Sounds more like the town should be called Paradise than Lusty.
While they were on the way to meet with the authorities on her land, Laci called to let her know that Gord had towed her car out to his shop and would replace the starter that day. She also told her to take as much time as she needed to take care of business.
“Thanks, Laci. I don’t think I’ll need more than today. The town’s leased us a house. I just need to buy a few clothes and personal things.”
“Take what you need, girlfriend. We all know how much that place meant to you.” She heard the smile in Laci’s words.
“Thank you.” It had meant the world to her. Until two men named Benedict had entered her life and showed her where her heart truly lay.
Michaela slid her phone back into her pocket. “Best decision I ever made was to come back home to take care of my dad. The second best? To let people in, beginning with the two of you.”
“We think so, too.” Lewis picked up her hand and kissed it then set it on his thigh.
“I do feel bad about the fact that after all the work y’all put in on that house yesterday that some asshole had to come and burn it down.”
“We all had a good time, sweetheart. So consider it practice for when we start building our new house from scratch.”
* * * *
Lewis turned the truck onto Michaela’s road. Randy made sure he had a firm grip on her hand. When they crested the small hill, she stiffened. They all saw the charred ruins and several official vehicles, as well as a canvas shelter on poles, set up to the right of the house.
Michaela inhaled deeply then exhaled slowly. “Wow. That’s…just wow.”
“That’s a tough thing to look at, baby girl. Take a moment,” Lewis said.
A single tear ran down her cheek, and then she inhaled deeply again. “I’m okay. You guys are here, so I’ll get through it.” She gently tugged on her hand, and when he released her, Randy handed her a tissue.
He caught Lewis’s nod of approval. One of the things Randy appreciated about his best friend—his brother—was the way that, between the two of them, they made the perfect mate for their woman.
Lewis parked by the barn. Once they were feet on the ground, Randy held Michaela’s right hand while Lewis picked up her left. Michaela set the pace as they walked toward the shell of her house.
Grant and Andrew Jessop were crouched in a spot in the back half of the house and appeared to be looking at something that he couldn’t see.
“I can’t really tell where that is,” she said softly. “Dad’s room?”
“Or maybe the hallway,” Randy said.
“That area is—was—part of the new addition. Of course, new is relative. My Grandpa Nick added on to the original home sometime in the first half of the previous century.”
“You couldn’t really tell there’d been an addition,” Lewis said.
“I think he did some work on the inside of the smaller, older part first before adding on. Dad told me some about it, though he himself hadn’t been born yet.”
Cops and investigators, some in uniform, had gathered around the table sheltered by the canvas. Randy recognized
