“Um. You guys mind if I stay a day?” Ana looked up from the magazine she was halfheartedly flipping through while Taylor was tidying the kitchen. “What happened?” “A tree crashed across the pass about ten minutes down from here. I called into the emergency operations in town, but they said they wouldn’t be able to clear it until this evening.” “Son of a bitch,” Taylor said, as he emerged from the kitchen, wiping his hands on the towel at his waist. “But everything will be okay by tonight, right?” she asked. “Sure. They’re usually pretty quick about clearing things out of here.” “Can we just go move it?” Taylor asked, his manner brusque. “How strong do you think you are?” Ana joked, in an effort to cover the fact that her husband was clearly annoyed that the man wanted to stay in his own house. Eli’s lips quirked. “I dunno, hon. Me and Taylor could kick some ass back in our day. But no, man. It’s not some little sapling. If there were a few more of us, probably, but not just you and me.”
