Bea nodded to herself. It was amazing how strong and stubborn Grandma could be when she set her mind on something. Bea had learned that the hard way. She rubbed her right knee. It was going to be sore for a while.

“Are you going to stay there?” she asked.

Dad hesitated. “I think your grandpa’s going to insist on spending the night. I should probably stay with him.”

She wanted to ask how Grandma could get so bad so fast. How the doctors were going to explain the seeming stranger she’d picked up at Pass Creek School. Instead, she finished with “Okay. Keep us posted.”

“Will do.”

She hung up the phone and filled Jeremy and Pastor Frank in on what she’d learned.

Pastor Frank tapped the table thoughtfully. “I think I’ll head over to the hospital if they’re going to stay awhile, now that I know you’re okay. Is there anything you need?”

Bea shook her head. “Thanks for coming.”

“Of course.” Pastor Frank patted her hand. “Dorothy and I will be praying for all of you. And if there’s anything else I can do . . .”

“Okay.”

He gave Jeremy a meaningful look. “You got my number?”

Jeremy nodded.

“I’ll see myself out.”

She listened to Pastor Frank clomp down the hall and out the door. Having him around was so familiar and yet so strange. His family and hers used to come and go from each other’s houses as if they were related. But everything was different now.

Jeremy pulled up a chair beside her as she took another sip of tea. “Can I get you anything? Are you hungry?”

Stop fussing over me, she wanted to scream. But she took one look at the concern on her husband’s face and felt tears well up in her eyes. Hot coffee, not again.

She fought back the waterworks as best she could. “A little. Are you?”

He put a gentle hand on her back. “A little. I wish there was a pizza place I could call for delivery.”

The only places open on a Sunday evening in Moose Creek were the gas station and the bars. Peggy’s Place was actually a bar and grill and made pretty good chicken-strip baskets, but they definitely didn’t deliver.

“What’s in the fridge?”

Jeremy stood to find out. “There are a few things I miss about the big city.”

“Pizza delivery’s not that special.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Rogue ice cubes spit from the freezer and onto the floor when he opened the fridge. “I was thinking of uninterrupted cell service.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

He pulled out leftover venison burgers and slid them onto a plate and into the microwave. “It scared me when I couldn’t reach you, and no one was here.”

“That’s just the way it is out here.”