“No answer?” Milo lowered the stack of math papers to his lap. “We can drive over there and check on her if you—” She waved away the rest of his sentence as Rose’s voice filled her ear. “Hello? Who’s calling?” “It’s me, Rose. Victoria.” Oh how she’d tried to convince the elderly woman to make the transition from a landline to a cell phone for safety reasons, but Rose wasn’t having it. What was good enough for her ten years ago was good enough for her now. “Don’t you have a husband to be heading to bed with instead of checking in on me every night?” Tori smiled at the woman’s daily dose of grousing while shaking off any lingering worry from Milo. “I do, but that doesn’t mean our nightly calls stop.” “I’m not going to drop dead just because the sun’s gone down. And if I do, I’m quite sure my body will still be warm when you send out the search party.”
