The word echoed in Kalli Evans’ head as she hung up the phone with a hand she willed into steadiness. The word was there when she called to inform her boss. Jerry didn’t argue, preferring the pinch of her temporary absence to possibly losing her altogether. It didn’t hurt that it coincided with New York’s slide into summer’s business doldrums. Stroke. Her eyes stung. She ignored it. Tears wouldn’t help. Hanging up a second time, she pulled out her suitcase, swung open the closet doors and surveyed her choices. Not much would translate to where she was going. “Wyoming!” Jerry had bleated. “What on earth for? I thought all your family’s in Connecticut.” “Not all,” she’d said, though she had no blood ties to the Jeffrieses. She was related to them by ties of the heart. And now Baldwin Jeffries had had a stroke.
