His lips quirked. She hadn’t been trying to be funny, but rather distract from the truth—she had no family to call.
“Your parents?” he asked.
Her mom and dad had been troubled teens when she’d come along and disrupted their lives. By the time she’d been born, her dad had peaced out and had never been a part of her life. Her mom hadn’t stuck around much longer, leaving Jane with her grandparents. Eventually her mom had grown up, settled down, and gotten herself a new family. Deeply embarrassed by her wild youth, her mom hadn’t spoken to her in years, and Jane had no intention of wasting her last few moments on earth trying to get her on the phone. “They’re not in my life.”
His eyes softened, but since she couldn’t handle sympathy, she cut him off before he could speak, handing him back the phone. “You should hurry, your battery’s nearly dead.”
Not moving anything but his finger, he activated a call on speaker, presumably so he didn’t have to exert the energy to lift the thing to his ear. A female voice answered with a soft, joyous-sounding “Levi!”
He drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Hey, Mom. Listen—”
“Oh, honey, I’m so glad you called! You left so quickly I didn’t get a chance to ask what you’d like for dinner. I mean, it’s so rare you get up here from San Francisco— Hold on a second. Jasper!” she yelled. “Stop that! Oh, for God’s sakes, he’s digging in the yard. We’ve got gophers in the grass again. They’re making holes all over the place, and Jasper fell into one and nearly broke his leg.”
Jane looked at Levi in concern.
Levi put a thumb over the microphone. “Jasper’s her dog. Also known as ‘Stop that!’ and ‘Drop it!’ He’s a huge goofus goldendoodle she rescued. Trust me, he’s indestructible.” He pulled his thumb from the microphone.
His mom was still talking.
“I mean, those holes . . . one of these days they’re going to be the death of someone,” she was saying. “Yesterday at my yoga class there was a woman whose son created a system with a camera that lets her know if there’s a gopher in her yard. He’s going to sell it and get rich.”
Levi looked pained. “Mom, anyone can buy a security camera—”
“Sure, but you could make something like the gopher camera and get rich.”
“I’ll get right on that,” he said on a barely-there sigh that made Jane smile. “But about why I’m calling—”
“I mean as long as it didn’t take any time from your personal life,” his mom interrupted. “You need a personal life, Levi, you work too much. You haven’t even made time to date since—”
“Mom.” Levi ran a hand over his face.
A blizzard and possible death hadn’t rattled him, but this clearly did. And now Jane wanted to know what the since meant.
“Mom, I’m trying to tell you something.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, honey. What?”
“I’m . . .”—he locked eyes with Jane—“going to be late picking up Peyton from her after-school dance program.”
Jane would bet her last ten bucks that hadn’t been what he’d planned on saying.
“Oh no,” his mom said. “Levi, you promised. Peyton told everyone in her class you were going to show them that magic trick you do, you know, the one where you make a volcano out of a soda? Oh! And did I tell you our plumbing problems are back . . .”
Levi ran a hand over his head, which undoubtedly hurt like hell. “Mom—”
“The toilet in the upstairs master keeps running, and sometimes it even overflows, and I know you say it’s because your dad doesn’t give a courtesy flush, whatever that means, but there’s got to be a fix.”