Clumsily, I slapped my hand against the light switch, plunging the kitchen into darkness. I spun wildly around in circles once I reached the living room until I spied Gram’s baseball bat in the umbrella stand. I dashed to it and held it at my side with a trembling hand as I fumbled for my phone in the pocket of my robe to call my father.

I jumped when I heard ringing from outside on the front porch. I took a breath and put my eye to the peephole. I had never been so glad to see my big brother, Cade stood there with my father at his side. Cade was a cop too. I sighed with annoyance as my heart rate slowed. It was probably one of their flashlights I’d seen. I opened the door. “Dad, I saw a flashlight from the kitchen window. Was it you guys checking up on me?” I asked.

They pushed past me to enter the house and rush through to the back door.

“Uh, come on in,” I muttered.

A few minutes later they came back inside.

“No one is back there. But Dad is still checking it out,” Cade said. “We just left a scene. You’ve got all the lights on, so we stopped to check on you.” He gestured to the baseball bat I still gripped in my hand. “It’s okay now, Lily.”

I put the bat back in the umbrella stand and crossed my arms over my chest. “I was getting a drink of water, and I saw a flashlight out in the yard. It startled me. I dropped a glass in the kitchen,” I blurted.

“I’ll go sweep it up. You’re barefoot. Sit down, Lily,” Cade ordered. He hugged me quickly as he walked past me to enter the kitchen. I curled back up in my quilt on the couch.

“Did you have a bad dream? Is that what woke you up?” Dad asked as he crossed the living room and sat in one of the wing chairs.

“Yeah. I just woke up a few minutes ago. I won’t be able to go back to sleep.”

“I’m sleeping on the couch tonight, Lily,” Cade said from the kitchen. He came back into the living room with a bag of Oreos and a glass of milk.

“Violet stocked your fridge earlier, and I haven’t been to the store in days. You’ll be doing me a favor. You have all kinds of breakfast stuff in there. I’ll cook in the morning.” Cade had a way of getting what he wanted in which you didn’t realize you’d been steamrolled by him.

“Oh, sure,” I agreed, too tired and scared to argue.