“Yep. It’s all part of the Family Medical Leave Act. The leave is unpaid, of course, but we can afford it.”

She threw her arms around his neck, scattering the pages. Buttons howled.

“Oh…my…God! This is incredible!”

“I know,” Andrew said in a high falsetto.

“Where is it in Maine?” she asked.

“In Bridge Mills, in the lakes region. The house is right on Round Lake.”

“But…how did you get a gorgeous place like this on such short notice?”

“Call it fate, but it just became available the day I had decided to do everything. The realtor said a couple had rented it into the fall, but the husband passed away suddenly.”

Kate’s excitement dulled. “That’s horrible.”

“It is. But we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right. You’re right. The big question is, when do we go?”

“You think we have enough time to pack for Saturday?”

“Hell yeah.” She hugged him again. “I love you so much, you know that?”

“I love you too.”

“Now, where’s my pizza?”

Chapter Six

Kate wasn’t the least surprised when she came down with a stomach virus on Thursday. It always happened. Give her something to look forward to, and her body would find a way to crap all over it. In this case, literally.

That meant Andrew had to do all the packing while she made lists in the bathroom. He’d become very adept at running the entire house, but he was starting to gripe at the slew of errands she’d mapped out for him to pick up all the stuff they needed.

He said, “You know, they do have stores in Maine that sell things to people who possess this thing called money. If I keep buying stuff here, we won’t have enough room in the car to carry it all.”

Scrolling through her tablet in the bathroom, she said, “Ha-ha. It’s just a few things.”

“It was just a few things two days ago. Now it’s bordering on comical.”

“We don’t know the kinds of stores they have and if they carry the stuff I need and like.”

Her stomach cramped and she squeezed her eyes shut. She hated stomach viruses most of all because of how quickly they depleted her already fragile system. Andrew kept trying to force those damned shakes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to taking the slightest sip.

“We’re going to Maine, not Azerbaijan,” he said through the door. “I’m pretty sure we can find cortisone cream and Mike and Ike candy there.”