The beam on the ceiling grew weaker, and Della swallowed. She didn’t know how much longer the power would be out, but she didn’t think the flashlight had that long left in it, and she didn’t want to be sitting here in the dark. Maybe, instead of obsessively checking the batteries in the BOBs earlier, she should have spared a moment to check the batteries in the flashlight…

Although, if push came to shove, she could always use her cell phone light.

Or she could just get her ass out of bed and go and get new batteries. There were more outside in the TV cabinet. Arlo kept them there because their collection of remote controls was the most battery-hungry, so it made sense.

Della swung her legs out of bed, pressing the home button on her phone to check the time. Two thirty. There were a couple of texts from Arlo, which she read—the initial one that Tucker had mentioned and one about half an hour ago telling her he’d probably be another hour. She texted back a big blue thumbs-up, then picked up the BOBs and the candle from the floor before getting dressed in her pajamas.

Aware that Tucker could still be outside, she eyed herself critically in the full-length oval mirror that stood to the left of her closet and thanked God there was only enough ambient light for a quick assessment, because plaid flannelette bottoms and a baggy T-shirt that left everything to the imagination were hardly inspiring.

She hadn’t really given her sleepwear much thought before, but she was suddenly rethinking it. Flannel and plaid may have been fine for the old Della but not the new one. The one who was taking back her life. She doubted someone like Tucker would look at her sideways in this sloppy little number. She’d bet Tucker’s women wore fancy negligees and tiny thongs to bed.

Della rolled her eyes at her reflection. It didn’t matter. She was going to get batteries, not perform a seduction. Hell, even if she’d wanted to seduce Tucker, she wouldn’t know where to start. Not now that she’d been rejected twice.

Padding out of her bedroom, she made her way down the dim, shadowy hallway. She wasn’t scared of the dark. Not when she was wide awake. She could sit in a dark room, walk around a dark house, walk down a dark street. She was only scared of the dark in those moments when she was transitioning through the layers of sleep to full consciousness. In that split second she opened her eyes.