When he finished his call, he took her by the hand and led her out to the truck. “We can’t do one thing until the water is turned off. Then we’ll figure out the damage and what we have to do to fix it.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. “But everything that was on the floor is ruined.”

“We’ll worry about that in a few minutes. They said they were already looking at a house not far from here that got flooded, so…look, here they are now,” he said.

Stevie’s mind ran in circles. All her mother’s things would be waterlogged. The house itself would be a mess. There was no way she could live in there for weeks—if ever.

Two guys got out of a truck and hurried over to the meter in the front yard. One of them used a long tool to turn off the water and then yelled, “I’m so sorry you got flooded, Stevie. This isn’t unusual with the older plumbing in these homes built back in the sixties.”

“What do I do now?” she asked.

“Get what you can out of it. Soon as we get done a block over from you, we’ll bring a pump and suck what water we can out of the house for you. Then you just have to wait until it dries and hire someone to come see if it’s worth repairing,” he answered. “Give us half an hour to finish what we’ve got to do, and we’ll be back. We’ve got both the gas and electric companies over there with us. We’ll bring them along to turn off those utilities. You shouldn’t go inside until we do that for fear of getting shocked.”

“Thank you,” Cody yelled and then turned to face Stevie. “I’ll take you back to the ranch. You can stay in the bunkhouse with me as long as you need to.”

Stevie closed her eyes and gave herself thirty seconds to get over the panic, and then she said, “Back this truck up to the porch. As soon as they turn off the electricity, I’m wading in there. My clothing is hanging in the closet and should be fine, and there’s pictures on the bookcase, and…” Tears began to stream down her cheeks.

Cody took her in his arms and held her tightly. “I’m so sorry, darlin’. I’ll help you and together we’ll load what we can in the bed of the truck. And I’m going to call Jesse. He can bring his truck, and Mia can drive Dad’s. We’ll take care of you, I promise.”

“But your truck, and…” she stammered.

“It’s sat in that ditch for almost a week. Another day isn’t going to matter.” Cody took a white hankie from his pocket and wiped away her tears. “I’m here for you.”