what I said before and how I acted. Truly.” Kayla reached out and squeezed Devon’s fingers.
“Things are rough right now. I know you didn’t mean it.” Devon squeezed back.
“Damn it,” Neil groused. “I was hoping there would be lady wrestling or maybe makeup sex.”
“Shut up, start taking care of your wife, and maybe there will be yet.” Dave adjusted himself on a stack of pillows, propping up both himself and Kayla so they had a perfect view of the trio, who began stripping on their bed.
It was hours later that they fell into a pile together—exhausted, happy, and definitely anything but angry at each other.
Something in Kayla’s life was exactly how it had always been meant to be. Hopefully tomorrow would put more things back in order.
She closed her eyes and fell asleep surrounded by people who loved her and always would, even on her worst days.
11
Kayla’s heart beat as hard as the bass at the rock festival she’d taken Dave to last summer. They’d been summoned back from Middletown after ten days so that she could meet with the insurance appraiser. Except when she pulled up, alone—because she’d somehow felt like dealing with this head-on and solo would prove to herself that she wasn’t losing her ability to adult somehow—she was shocked to see three other vehicles and a few men with clipboards and bright orange vests roaming the site where her home and business used to stand.
She climbed from her car and shut the door a little too hard, the slam echoing through the still mountain air now that there wasn’t a riot of trees and other foliage to deaden the sound.
The men turned toward her and approached, none of them looking especially chipper.
“Good morning,” she said with a nod.
“It is morning,” one responded before sticking out his hand. “I’m not sure this is anyone’s definition of good, though. I’m sorry.”
Kayla nodded and stared into his eyes as they shook. Then she did the same with the other two guys. It was better than looking over at the ruins of her hard work and the love she’d poured into this place.
“I’m Lance. I’m the claims specialist. This is Bruce, our engineer, and that’s Carl, our environmental impact guru.” He gestured to each one in turn.
“Wow. I didn’t realize we’d need all that today.” Kayla toyed with the piercing in her lip. “It seems pretty obvious to me that this is a shut and dry case. There’s nothing left. I brought our construction records, receipts, and inventories to verify the value covered by the policy.” She held out the four-inch binder of documentation she’d compiled.
“Well, at least you’re accepting of that.” Lance sighed as if he’d been afraid to say what they all could obviously see. “We can appraise the land value and cut you a check, but there’s not going to be anything up here for a very long time. It sure must have been pretty before.”
“Wait, what?” Kayla stammered.
Bruce winced. “You weren’t planning on rebuilding on site, were you?”
“Yes. This is my home. The place I’ve invested the last nearly twenty years of my life. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Ah, shit.” He looked to Lance. Guess he didn’t get paid enough to deal with the raving madwoman he assumed she was about to become.
“Ma’am—“
“Don’t. My name is Kayla.”
“Kayla.” Lance turned and motioned for her to follow. “Let me show you something and Carl can explain what we’re looking at here.”
He led them over to the brink of a steep drop-off, where her house had perched to optimize its view out onto the lake. The rest of the land sloped a little more gradually beyond where the cabins had been, but from here she noticed slashes in the mountainside that she hadn’t seen before, focused on her home and the property itself.
“What’s that?” She eyed the ragged lines that stair-stepped down the mountain.
Carl pointed to some of the other evidence of heavy machinery she’d assumed were from the firetrucks and other emergency workers. “When they fight the fire, they often cut into the terrain to prevent mudslides and other erosion effects. This is unstable land. Dangerous. It will take years and lots of reforestation, mature trees, and established groundcover before the mountain you knew is ready for people to resettle it and safe enough for you to erect the kinds of structures you had here before.”
“Years?” Kayla nearly choked. “We don’t have years. We need to start construction in the spring, latest. Is there any way that’s possible? My