Patrick arrived at the cabin to find Michele waiting at the table with dinner ready. He studied her sitting there. Michele reminded him a little bit of his mother, but in all of the good ways, of course. She was always ready to just jump in and handle whatever it was that needed handling, and she rarely asked anything of him. Until now.
Driving in, he couldn’t help but notice how run-down the place looked since they had been there last, only a few years ago. It was one of the first places Michele took him where they could spend uninterrupted time together. It was so hard back at home, because while they worked together and it was expected for them to be seen around town with one another, they couldn’t actually be together. This was why, after that first trip, Michele surprised Patrick by
