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They said their good-byes, and he headed back to the tavern He needed to pay his bill and get back to it And then he’d push this strange episode from his mind

Three

Sorrow had sent the sheriff on his way So about the look on his face ht need help, but she wasn’t helpless

She especially didn’t want hi shot police lieutenant in a ht be a small-town yokel in comparison

And anyway, she had a man in her life already, and he loved to help Maybe it was because Da behind a desk at his fa to her aid ason a white horse

Whatever the reason, he was always happy to roll up his sleeves and do things like chop wood, or fix a clogged drain, or perforht need So her with his h there was one task she liked hih escaped her She sure could use a heaping dose of that sort of help right about now But she pushed the thought aside--this latest crisis was a doozy She barely had time to shower these days, much less canoodle with Damien, no matter how yu blindly at the attic wreckage, she phoned hi his cell the way he always did when she called He had a sh she never did love his penchant for calling her by her last name But it was a habit he’d started in s died hard

"Hey yourself" She heard background noise, like the sound of wind and gears shifting She frowned "Are you driving?"

He paused, hesitated "Maybe"

"Oh, Damien, you know I hate when you talk and drive" Even as she said it, she hated even y sound of her own voice But he could be so reckless soh troubles without hi such thoughts to rest

"Relax I’ue for a moment, and decided she’d pretend to believe hiht?"

She heard the sounds of spitting gravel and the whine of a rapidly downshifting engine He drove like an eight-year-old playing with Hot Wheels, but she’d vowed not to henpeck Instead, she told hiine, and she heard the dinging of the opened car door "Tellthe focus in Daot his crazy driving He’d work his --was she taking hi Sorroas strong and could handle what ca to work in this weather was another thing entirely And Daed to pull a rabbit out of his hat

"The roof," she repeated, getting up and wandering to the center of the attic where she could stand fully upright Snoas blowing in, and she shielded a hand over her eyes, squinting against it "A branch froh, into the attic"

"Yeah, it was du," Damien said, and she heard his car door slam "I told your dad he needed to cut back that tree"

"I know, I know But what Bear wants--"

"Bear gets," he finished, with an irreverent laugh

Everyone in Sierra Falls loved her father, but they also kne set in his ways the man had become As far as Bear Bailey was concerned, there was only one way to run the Big Bear Lodge and Thirsty Bear Tavern, and it was his way

"Don’t you worry," Damien said "We’ll have you patched in tie?"

She spun in a circle, assessing Thankfully the snoas slowing, but the sun was coun to drip in a steady plop-plop on the attic floor