He scanned the room, taking in the tree. A tree whose branches almost reached them where they lay. It sprawled across most of the room and had dragged the ceiling down with it. Pieces of drywall and insulation littered the floor. Drywall dust floated in the air like smoke. Above them, a light fixture dangled by a wire, the bulb still lit somehow. He looked beyond it, up into a clear blue sky.

He eased off Sophie, who stared stricken at the same sight.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Pippa!”

He was suddenly aware of the dog, barking from her window perch.

“She’s fine.”

He needed to get Sophie out of harm’s way before the rest of the ceiling came down. The tree had only missed them by a few feet.

“Sophie . . . Come over here, honey.” He helped her up and tugged her to the far corner of the room.

She couldn’t seem to take her eyes from the grotesque sight of the ceiling.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Is anything hurt? Your ankle?”

“I’m all right,” she said on a breath. “You?”

“I’m fine.” He rubbed the back of his head, surveying the disaster that was her shop. It seemed surreal—a tree lying in the room they’d been working so hard to perfect. The sky visible through the gaping hole in the eaves. The wind rushing through what was supposed to be an enclosed space.

“It’s over,” Sophie said, her tone flat. “We’ll never make it now.”

He touched her arm, hating the sound of defeat in her voice, the look of hopelessness in her eyes. “Maybe we can get it cleaned up. Patch up the ceiling. We’ll work all night.”

But even as he said the words, he realized the roof framing had caved in with the ceiling. This was no patch job. It would require more than tutorial videos and elbow grease. It would require a carpenter, a drywall crew, and a lot of money. “You have insurance, right?”

“That’ll take days if not weeks to process. And I sure don’t have the money to fix”—she gestured to the disaster—“this. That stupid tree. I knew it was trouble.”

Her words jogged his memory. “Wait a minute. You said you had a few thousand dollars set back for that tree. You were going to have it taken down. You can use that. It might not be enough, but it’s a start.”

“I don’t have that money anymore. I—” She gave a humorless laugh. “I loaned it out.”

Loaned it out? She’d mentioned having the money only several days ago. “Loaned it to who?”

Her eyes slid silently to his. “My dad.”