I didn't know how long I had been sitting there after the call with Isabella ended in that unsatisfying run. What if she was been scolded. Or ...Lukas was ...

No. If Lukas was anywhere close, I trust Jake to help her.

Time blurred when my mind was spinning like this. Eventually I pulled myself out of the pool, dried off, and wandered into the kitchen still wrapped in a towel around my waist.

Elena was already there, moving around the island with that quiet efficiency I'd come to rely on. She wore her warm but no-nonsense, the kind of woman who had seen enough of life to speak her...