We were bone tired by the time I pulled the truck into Mr. Lewis’s driveway. Nova had gone super Nova and packed like nobody’s business. It helped that she wasn’t too worried over the small things. She’d had the kitchen packed in the time it took me to go pick up plywood sheets from Mr. Lewis’s friend about six blocks away.

When I shut the truck off, Nova sat forward and put her head in her hands. “I’m so tired I can’t even think. And I still have to get at least two loads of laundry done so Noni and I have clothes for tomorrow.”

There were only two boxes in the back, and those were Nova’s clothes. I sent her inside by asking if she could get us something hot to drink while I brought the boxes in. She fumbled her way to the front door. When she staggered inside, my heart melted.

She was something else. Nova didn’t give up. She’d work until the job was done or she fell over. By the look of it, she was close to going down for the count, but she somehow managed to stay on her feet by sheer determination alone.

Stanley held the door for me as I brought the heavy boxes in one at a time. Once I took my jacket off, he said, “Ladies are in the kitchen.”

Noni was clucking over Nova, hand patting her reassuringly as she made motherly sounds. “You need rest, but first you need something to eat. I bet you didn’t stop all day. You’ll wear yourself out like that, Nova. Here, drink this…” A steaming cup was slid along the table, coming to a stop under Nova’s nose. The steam was so thick she shrank back from it.

“Ah, and you, young man. This one is for you. Sit down, sit down, you’re not going to get any taller,” Noni said, taking me by the arm, pulling me over to a vacant seat, and handing me my own mug.

“How about grilled cheese and soup?” Mr. Lewis asked.

“Right now, I’d take cardboard coated in ketchup,” Nova answered, wrapping her hands around her mug and lifting it to her lips. “Mmmm, Noni’s hot chocolate.”

Noni bobbed her head. “Made for special occasions and dire circumstances. I’m still not giving you the secret ingredient, though,” she said, wagging her finger at Nova.

“Not even if I tell you it’s the best hot chocolate in the history of hot chocolate?” Nova asked.

“Not even then,” Noni said, giving her a warm smile. “So, tell me… how bad is it?”

Nova sighed. “The outer wall in the living room is burnt through, but Eli covered it with plywood for a temporary fix to keep the weather out. Most of it is smoke and water damage, so it’s repairable. I just don’t know how soon we can get someone out there to fix it.”

“Well, it could have been worse,” Noni said, and then asked, “What about that ugly old recliner?”

Nova shook her head.

“Well, damn,” Noni whispered as her eyes filled with tears. She wiped them away and gave Nova a reassuring look. “I thought I’d never see the day that old thing would outlast me.”

“Just you wait until you sit in that fancy one in the living room. I bet you’ll be on the phone placing an order for one the next day,” Mr. Lewis said, gesturing over his shoulder at the matching recliners in the living room.

The house was set up for two people, yet only one lived there.

Noni snorted. “Like I’d pay that kind of money for a chair.”

Mr. Lewis looked at Noni, tilted his head a bit, and screwed his lips up as if appraising the situation. “Well, if you’re nice to me, I might just let you have it. No one else sits in it anyway. Seems to be a waste, sitting there collecting dust.”

Noni shook her head, rolled her eyes, and turned away from him when he winked at her. “Crazy old fool.”

“I’m going to start a load of laundry so we have clean clothes for tomorrow,” Nova said, pushing up from the table.

“No can do, kiddo. The belt in the washing machine let go on me this morning. With everything going on, I forgot to mention it to Eli,” Mr. Stanley said. “I have someone coming tomorrow afternoon to look at it.”

“Damn,” Nova said between clenched teeth.

“I have a washer and dryer. You can send whatever you want home with me. I’ll bring it back to you in the morning,” I said, gaining twin looks of horror from the other side of the table.

“What? I know how to do laundry. I promise I won’t put a red sock in with the whites,” I said, chuckling.

Noni turned to Nova. “Maybe you should just go home with him and take the laundry with you. I’ll be fine until tomorrow afternoon.”

Take Nova home with me? Best idea ever, I thought, nodding along with Noni as a plate plunked down in front of me a little harder than necessary.

Mr. Lewis narrowed his gaze. “I’m sure you can make do until the washer is fixed. Right, Nova?”

“Actually…” Nova said, dragging out the word. “I have no choice but to do laundry since I hadn’t had a chance to do my own for a few days.”

Noni huffed. “Meaning the girl has no clean clothes. Honestly, Nova. How can you take such good care of me, but not do the same for yourself?”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” she asked, skating around Noni’s question.

“Positive,” I said, taking a bite of my sandwich to keep from smiling. Mr. Lewis didn’t need any more reasons to not trust me with Nova.

We ate as quickly as possible so Nova could get a head start on what she proclaimed to be a mountain of laundry that needed to be washed, dried, and folded.

Before we could leave, Noni made sure to stock Nova up with Mr. Lewis’s laundry supplies. I carried both boxes I’d carried in back out as Nova gathered her coat and purse.

Noni noticed I hadn’t touched my hot chocolate and insisted I take it with me, so she dispatched Mr. Lewis to find a travel cup, refusing to let us leave until the cup was in my hand.

“Take care of my granddaughter, young man,” Noni said as I held the door for Nova.

“I will, promise. We’ll see you in the morning. Thanks for dinner,” I said, making a point to include Mr. Lewis in my farewells.

He came up behind Noni and put his hand on her shoulder. Her hand came up and squeezed his, staying there as they watched us get into the truck.

“He’s in love with her,” I said, putting the truck in gear as Nova waved.

She sighed. “He’s been in love with her for what seems like forever. Instead of telling her how he felt, he waited. Now it’s too late.”

I thought about that for a second. “I don’t think it’s ever too late to tell someone how you feel. Besides, have you noticed the way it seems to help her to have him around?”

“They’ve known each other since he moved here. I think they were teenagers when they met,” she explained.

“And they’ve been friends all this time?” I asked.

“I think there was a time where they were more like acquaintances. They were friendly toward one another, but each had their own life, if that makes any sense.”

“It does. How long were your grandparents married?” I asked to keep the conversation flowing.

“Not long. Noni doesn’t talk much about my grandfather. He passed shortly after my mom was born, so she’s been alone for a long time. And Stanley lost his wife about eight or nine years ago,” she explained.

“Here we are,” I said, pulling past the house and then backing the truck in just as the wind picked up and Mother Nature upended a bucket of snow that swirled in my headlights.

I shut the truck off and handed her the house key. “Can you unlock the front door?”

She did, and held the door open for me as I unloaded the truck.

“I swear I’ve carried that box more times than I can count,” I said, setting the bulging box down next to its traveling companion.

“I guess I shouldn’t ask you to carry it over to the washing machine then?” Nova asked, covering her mouth to try to hide her smile.

“Nope. Not gonna do it,” I said, leaning over and shoving the box along the floor until it was up against the wall closest to the washer.

Nova shoved the other one into place. “Figured I’d help since you got roped into helping me today.”

I tapped her on the nose. “That’s what friends are for. Now, how do you want to tackle this? I say do small loads with lots of soap, set it on pre-soak, and select the disinfectant setting.”

Nova goggled at me. “You weren’t bluffing. You really do know how to do laundry. I thought all guys dumped their clothes in and hoped for the best.”

“They do until that one red sock turns everything pink,” I said, lifting the lid on the washer. “What’s first?”

Nova curled up on the couch as the first load of laundry sloshed away inside the washer. She was asleep in less than a minute flat. I didn’t have the heart to wake her, not even to tuck her into the spare bed I had. So I did the next best thing and pulled a blanket from the closet. After covering her, I stepped back and drank in the sight of her as she slept. She was beautiful even with the dark circles under her eyes.

Life hadn’t been easy for her since she returned home. Life wouldn’t be easy for her for a long time yet. And there I was, smack in the middle of it all, hoping I didn’t throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

I moved the clothes to the dryer and started a new load, leaving Nova fast asleep on the couch. She needed the rest—had probably needed it for a long time. While I waited for the dryer to finish, I pulled out my laptop and shot a quick email off to Roman Flint explaining everything that had happened with Nova since I’d reconnected with her.

Once the message was sent, I checked my inbox and found a few emails from Murphy, who’d been tasked to send me information on land parcels to look into. When the email opened, it looked like a jumble of nothing more than numbers. It took me a second to realize what they were. Coordinates. Once I made the connection, I copied the first set into the navigation app and plugged them in.

The dryer droned on in the background as I viewed image after image of satellite shots. Land from the air always looked the same, to me anyway. Property could be picked based off images, or by walking the ground to see if it would fit for what it was needed for.

After going through several sets of coordinates, I flagged two pieces of property to go look at some point during the following week. Then I shot Murphy back an email, telling her I’d do my best to get to them. With winter closing in, I wouldn’t be doing much trekking around the wilds of Alaska to look at land. When that happened, all I could do was pull land documents and spend hours reading through EPA reports and tax bills. I yawned, bored with it before it even began.

There were a few other emails from the guys, and one from Paige. I answered them back with a quick email, giving them a brief accounting of my moose encounter, and then the situation with Nova. It kept me busy until the dryer buzzed.

My heavy-lidded eyes ached as I folded the last of the whites, leaving them in neat little stacks for Nova. It was more than a little odd to be handling her underwear, but I did my best to ignore it, focusing only on getting done so I could go to bed. The other load could stay in the dryer overnight. I’d restart them in the morning to get rid of wrinkles.

I had one last thing to do before I could fall face-first into bed, and that was to make the bed in the small spare room. Once it was made, I collected Nova from the couch with a little bit of finagling, then carried her to the freshly made bed. When the covers settled over her, she fisted them and rolled, cocooning herself, but never once woke up.