Chapter Nine
Alison’s cell phone was ringing as she blinked in the morning light. She sat straight up, pulled from a dream and a deep sleep, and tossed back the quilt to stumble from bed and hurry out to the living room in her nightshirt.
She’d left her cell phone plugged in and charging on the kitchen table, and she landed on it, seeing her dad’s name on the screen.
“What time is it?” she snapped, though she saw the clock on the stove read 7:36 a.m. She felt the morning chill and pulled a hand over her face.
“Late,” Ryan said quite sharply. “Remember when I said to call me in the morning?”
She could hear the edge in his tone, and she thought she heard her mom say something in the background as she walked over to the thermostat and turned it up. She shivered. “It’s the c***k of dawn,
