When Alec Met Evie (Appies, #6)

by Jenny Proctor

Ruth manages to trace the flood to the still-leaking water heater and turns off the water to the whole house, but that doesn’t do anything to help the inches of water already pooling on the floor. The carpet is soaked, the wood floors in the kitchen are warped, the baseboards and several inches of drywall are completely waterlogged. And I can’t get my landlord to answer his phone. Though I’m not sure how much help he’ll be until he’s home from his backpacking trip, even if he does answer. I don’t know a lot about water damage, but I’m guessing this is going to take days, maybe even weeks to fix. Which means Juno and I are essentially homeless. It’s too cold to sleep in my car, which means…I can get a hotel, maybe? Or…I guess that’s my only option. A hotel. A wave of nausea makes my skin feel clammy, and a cold sweat breaks out on my forehead. I can’t afford a hotel. I was basically scraping the bottom of the barrel to pay for the move and get myself down here. I’ll get another deposit from my ex-inlaws at the first of next month, and I have savings. But there isn’t an ounce of wiggle room in the spreadsheet I made for myself, in the meticulous calculations I did to make sure those savings will stretch and supplement my income for the entire nine months of my apprenticeship. There’s no way I’ll make it if I have to spend a week—maybe longer—in a hotel room. Ruth eventually coaxes me away from the porch and down the sidewalk to her house where I finally sit down to feed Juno...