“What are you doing?” Ava yawned lazily.

“My phone’s probably about to die. I want to charge it in case he calls tomorrow morning.” She sifted through her purse, promising herself she’d take time to clean and organize its contents this week, no more procrastination. When she didn’t see her phone, she lifted out her wallet. Nothing. “Crap. I must’ve left my phone in your Jeep.”

It wasn’t raining any longer, but it was cold outside and up here it was warm and cozy. And they’d managed to come in without waking up Aunt Becky. Over a long breakfast seemed like a much better time to tell her about Ava’s rocky marriage than close to midnight.

“I guess I’ll get it in the morning.”

Olivia crawled back into bed, giggling as she fought Ava for the perfect amount of covers just like they did when they were kids sharing a bed. “Love you, Sis.”

“Love you too.”

After a big, contented sigh, Olivia drifted off to sleep with the image of a gorgeous pair of hazel-green eyes, a slow, sexy smile, broad shoulders, and wonderfully toned abs burning in her mind.

Chapter 11

The sun was high enough in the sky that alarm washed over Olivia as she opened her eyes, squinting in the bright light. How many days had it been since she’d woken up to full-on sunshine? Too many.

She was groping across her nightstand, feeling for her phone, when she remembered two things. First, when she’d gone to bed, Ava had been cuddled beside her, and now the other half of the bed was empty. And second, she’d also left her phone in her sister’s Jeep.

Olivia sat up and stretched, smelling something that was neither bacon nor sausage, but was likely a half-decent replacement for one of them. Aunt Becky was a vegan, had been for nearly ten years, and while Olivia ate whatever she wanted outside the home, she’d grown accustomed to eating vegan here. While she liked a well-dressed bowl of oatmeal and had a big soft spot for avocado toast, Sunday breakfasts were a change from the ones she’d grown up with on the farm.

Shoving her feet into a pair of fuzzy slippers that Ava must have overlooked or would’ve confiscated, she shuffled down the narrow stairs and into the open kitchen and living room below. The whole place had a rustic country feel—packed with a hodgepodge of unique furniture and decorated with a variety of antiques—and was somehow a perfect complement to the pottery her aunt sold for a living.