“They’re gettin’ dressed so we can head over to Callie’s,” he said, gesturing with his chin toward the bedrooms. He grabbed a frozen bag of corn out of the freezer and tossed it to me. “You want coffee?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” I said, putting the corn against my eye. Fuck, that hurt. Everything hurt. I had a feeling that my clothes were covering a shitload of bruises that hadn’t been there yesterday.

  Mack had just handed me a mug and I was pouring my coffee when Rose and Kara came down the hallway together.

  “I won’t be an asshole about it,” Rose was saying. “But I can feel how I wanna feel.”

  “I’m just saying, it would probably be better if you didn’t say good riddance to anyone but me,” Kara replied. “That’s their home.”

  “I know,” Rose snapped.

  “You don’t have to bite my head off,” Kara grumbled, stomping toward me.

  “Everyone’s strung tight,” Mack said, his voice low.

  “I can’t be sorry that fucking house is gone,” Rose said, looking at Mack. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. Yes, it’s Aunt Farrah and Uncle Casper’s house. Yeah, the kids grew up there. But I was there when everything went down, okay? None of you were. And if I never have to see that fucking place again, I’m not fucking sorry about it, okay?”

  I felt seriously out of place as Rose stood in the middle of the kitchen, her entire body tense as she spoke. I wasn’t a mind reader, and I’d never pretend to know what someone else was thinking, but I had a pretty good feeling that Rose was a lot more upset about my grandparents’ house burning down than she was letting on.

  “Nobody’s arguing that,” Kara said, her voice wobbling as she slammed a mug down on the counter. “I just said—”

  “Enough,” Mack ordered.

  “I just—”

  “Kara,” he growled.

  I moved closer to Kara. Rose clearly wasn’t the only one upset about the house.

  “I’ll get coffee at my parents’ place,” Rose said after a moment. “You ready?”

  Mack nodded. “You’ll bring Kara over?” he asked me.

  “I can drive myself,” Kara replied.

  “I’ll bring her,” I said at the same time.

  We were quiet as Mack ushered Rose out of the house.

  “You wanna finish your coffee here or bring it with us?” I asked Kara after the front door had closed behind them.

  “I can drive myself,” she said, not bothering to turn and face me.

  “You got a problem ridin’ with me?” I asked. I reached out and wrapped my fingers around her hip, my stomach churning as she tensed up. Shit.

  “No, it’s fine,” she said, setting down her mug. “I’ll just leave the coffee. It tastes like shit anyway.”

  She gave me an unconvincing smile as she moved away.

  “You gonna kiss me good morning?” I asked, testing the waters.

  I couldn’t complain about the quick kiss she gave me. On the surface, it was fine. But something was off and we both knew it.

  The drive was quiet and I braced for the moment we were surrounded with people. There’d been so much talk about me and Kara, I knew that even with the worry about my grandparents’ place, all the eyes were going to be on us.

  “Poor Charlie,” Kara said as we pulled up outside Callie’s. “Rose is right, we weren’t there. Neither was Charles. It’s just her home.”

  “She’ll be alright,” I said, turning the truck off. “It sucks, but they got the important stuff out. Everybody’s okay. It’s just a house.”

  I knew it better than anyone after the house fire we’d had when I was a kid. It was overwhelming and seriously fucking sad when it happened, but eventually, just like everything else, it got easier.

  “You okay?” I asked Kara as she sat, not getting out of the truck.

  “I—yeah.” She stared out the windshield. “It’s weird to think that it’s gone. I spent half of my childhood there.” She laughed humorlessly. “You know that. You were there.”

  “Yeah.”

  “We better get inside,” she said, unbuckling her seatbelt as she threw open the door.

  “You should be wearing your mask,” I said as I followed her out.

  “It’s like fifty feet to the front door,” she argued.

  “Fifty feet of smoke,” I replied, resting my hand at the small of her back. “You got it with you?”

  “It’s in my pocket,” she said, glancing up at me. “I’ll put it on if we come back out.”

  I didn’t bother arguing since we were already climbing the front steps. When we got inside, the familiar sound of people talking over each other surrounded us. Pretty much everyone had congregated at Callie’s, but the usual sound of kids running wild was absent.

  They’d circled the wagons. I wasn’t surprised.

  “I’m going to find Charlie,” Kara told me over her shoulder.

  “I’ll find you in a bit,” I replied, kissing her head as we parted.

  I went looking for my gram and found her standing in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in her hand. Anyone else and I would’ve expected them to look haggard, but not Farrah. She was dolled up to the point of looking like she was headed for a night on the town, not an eyelash out of place.

  “How you doin’?” I asked as I walked over to give her a hug.

  “Hey, sweetheart,” she replied, sighing. She rubbed my back as she returned the hug. “I’m alright. It’s just a house, right?”

  “Still sucks,” I replied.

  “It really does,” she said with a huff. She smiled as I pulled away.

  “Have you guys seen it?”

  “No,” she replied, shaking her head. “Cody got a call from one of the guys you met at the house yesterday? I guess he gave him his number. We haven’t been out there yet.”

  She got pulled into a conversation with someone else, so I made my way through the house, saying hello to people as I passed them. Surprisingly, my parents hadn’t shown up yet.

  “Hey, Muhammed Ali,” Gramps Casper said as I reached him. “You look like shit.”

  “I feel like shit,” I replied. “How’re you doin’?”

  “Pissed,” he said with a huff. “But it is what it is.”

  “We did what we could,” I reminded him.

  “Yeah, we did,” he replied. “Thanks for helpin’ with that.”

  “Of course.”

  “I think we’re gonna head over there in a bit. Get a look at the place,” he said, glancing toward my gram. “Not sure it’s sunk in yet. Might as well rip off the Band-Aid.”

  “Is it safe?” I asked.

  “Safe enough. Sounds like the fire burned through and moved on down the road.”

  “Jesus,” I muttered.

  “Cecilia and Mark’s place is fine,” Gramps said, shaking his head. “Isn’t that some shit?”

  “Some people have all the luck,” I joked.

  Gramps smiled. “I’m seriously fuckin’ glad for it.” He paused. “We probably should’ve driven Mark’s excavator back to their place yesterday.”

  “Oh, shit,” I replied as realization dawned.

  Gramps laughed. “Fuck it. I’m sure he had insurance.”

  “You better hope to God he did,” I replied, imagining the cost of replacing that piece of equipment.

  “Hell, I’ll just blame it on you,” he joked. He looked at my gram again. “I better go check on your grandmother.”

  “You know where Charlie is?” I asked.

  “Upstairs, I think,” he said, patting me on the shoulder as he moved past me.

  I found Charlie and Kara sitting on the floor of one of the bedrooms with their backs resting against an old set of bunkbeds.

  “Hey,” Charlie said as I walked in, her face blotchy with tears. “If the apartments burn, too, I’m going to be seriously pissed.”

  “I bet,” I said, sitting down with them on the floor. I leaned back gingerly against a dresser. My back definitely had some gnarly bruises. I could feel them every time I moved. I was almost nervous to take a piss. If there was blood in it, I was going to find Curtis again. The fucker.

  “You look like you were put through a meat grinder,” Charlie said, looking at my face.

  “You should see the other guy,” I replied dryly.

  “I have,” she said with a watery laugh. “Never a quiet moment around here, huh?”

  “Hey, I’m here to entertain,” I said with a shrug.

  Kara was suspiciously quiet. When I looked over, she was staring at the carpet. When she finally looked up at me, I could see a hint of the panic she’d been in the day before.

  We needed to talk about that. Soon.

  “You two fucked like bunnies!” Charlie blurted, her eyes wide as she looked back and forth between us.

  “Shut up,” Kara hissed, glancing at the doorway.

  “You did,” Charlie said, barely lowering her voice. “I knew when you did it before, and I know it now! You look exactly the same.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Kara said under her breath.

  “You did,” Charlie insisted. “You’re all, I can’t meet anyone’s eyes and Draco’s over there mooning over you.”

  That description was a little insulting.

  “Well, it’s about time,” Charlie said in satisfaction.

  “Drop it,” Kara said, elbowing Charlie in the side.

  Charlie ignored her and looked at me. “Nothing to say?”

  “How old are you again?” I asked flatly.

  “Nice dodge,” Charlie said, rolling her eyes. She looked just like her mom when she did that. “Well, well, well, this just made my fucked up day a little bit better.”

  “I don’t know why,” Kara snapped. “You didn’t get laid.”

  Charlie whooped. “Confirmation!”

  “I hate you sometimes,” Kara bitched.

  “You love me,” Charlie said, slinging her arms around Kara and tackling her sideways. As Kara squirmed to get away, Charlie’s legs wrapped around hers. “You love me so much. I’m your bestest friend in the entire world,” she sang. “You couldn’t live without me and you’ll never have to because we’re going to be friends forever!”

  “I’m seriously reconsidering that,” Kara grunted as she tried to pry Charlie’s arms away.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re not crying anymore,” Callie said as she stared at them from the doorway. “We’re going to run over and check out your parents’ place. You coming?”

  It was probably the only thing that would’ve made Charlie let go of Kara before she was ready.

  “We’re coming,” Charlie said, kneeling above Kara’s prone body. She looked down. “You love me,” she said one more time before getting to her feet.

  “You’re a fucking lunatic,” Kara replied. She still allowed Charlie to help her up.

  I held back a groan as I got to my feet.

  “You alright, there, Turbo?” Charlie asked as we left the room.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Good, then I’m riding with you.”

  “You’re riding bitch,” Kara said, pointing.

  “The hell I am,” Charlie replied with a laugh, smacking Kara’s hand down. “You’re banging the driver, you can ride in the middle.”

  “Charlie,” Kara hissed.

  We’d reached the bottom of the stairs, and the people around us laughed.

  “Who won the pool?” Grandpa Dragon asked dryly as the crowd moved toward the front door.

  “I think I wrote the guesses down,” my gram replied. “It’s in my purse.”

  Kara turned about fifty shades of red and I stared at my feet, hoping to God that Mack was already outside and hadn’t heard the conversation. I was too much of a coward to look around and be sure.

  I let Kara into my side of the truck and waited for her to slide into the middle seat before climbing in behind her. She was refusing to even look in Charlie’s direction. The cab wasn’t very big though, and I wondered how she expected to maintain the distance when we were all shoulder-to-shoulder.

  “We’re all gonna drive out there and they’re not even gonna let us through,” I said as the tension in the truck mounted. “Just watch.”

  “Then we’ll take a different road,” Charlie said determinedly, her arms crossed. “I want to see what’s left.”

  “I’m not drivin’ you guys over there if it isn’t safe,” I replied.

  “Then I’ll catch a ride with someone else,” Charlie replied easily.

  Kara huffed in annoyance so I rested my hand on her thigh, giving her a squeeze. She must have interpreted my warning, because she didn’t say a word.

  Actually, none of us spoke the rest of the drive. Not far from my grandparents’ driveway, the effects of the fire became glaringly obvious. Trees on one side of the road were charred black. The sight was eerie as hell.

  “Holy shit,” Charlie breathed as the sight of their charred mailbox came into view. The little metal box was lying on its side, the wood post that held it completely gone.

  Seconds after that, we could see what was left of the house. It wasn’t much.

  Kara reached over and clasped Charlie’s hand.

  “It really is gone,” Charlie said, her tone almost surprised. “Good thing we went back for those quilts, huh?”

  “You guys got the important stuff,” Kara replied soothingly.

  We parked behind the other vehicles and got out, staring at the scene around us. It was the weirdest fucking thing. There were patches of grass that were completely untouched by fire, sprouting green and cheerful out of the ground, and five feet away, bushes that had burned to a crisp. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the path of the fire.

  “Nobody get too close,” Grandpa Dragon ordered, looking toward the house. “Who the fuck knows what kind of shit the fire caused.”

  I stared at a little metal garden decoration still standing proudly where the edge of the porch should’ve been.

  “What does he mean?” Kara asked, walking over to my side.

  “All sorts of shit you’re not supposed to burn, burned,” I replied, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. “Until the fire department checks it out, it’s not safe. Could still be hot, too.”

  “I can’t believe they let us back here,” she said, leaning against me. She seemed shell shocked. Hell, I guess we all were to some degree.

  “They don’t know,” I replied. “Someone comes, I’m sure they’ll tell us to get the fuck outta here.”

  There were charred trees for as far as the eye could see, but only on the back and left sides of the house. The excavator, parked near the woods on the right side of the house, was completely untouched. It was almost as if the fire had turned a corner, and right at the corner had stood my grandparents’ home.

  Bad fucking luck.

  I looked up just as my parents pulled in behind the rest of the cars and parked.

  “My parents are here,” I told Kara.

  “Good,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. “Your grandparents need them.”

  I nodded.

  “Oh, Curt’s with them,” she said as my brother climbed out of the back seat.

  “Fantastic,” I muttered as she tensed. “He’ll keep his distance,” I assured her.

  I said it, but I wasn’t sure that he would. In Curt’s mind, we’d probably settled the issue and now things would go back to the way they’d always been.

  Except, I reminded myself, things weren’t the way they’d always been. They hadn’t been since I’d gone inside—I’d just been too stupid and too wrapped up in my own shit to realize it.

  “Goddamn it, Draco,” my mom said as she reached us. She lifted a hand to brush it against my face. “It wasn’t the fucking time.”

  “No, it was years too late,” I replied through my teeth.

  Mom jerked in surprise.

  “Keep him away from me.”

  “Grow the fuck up,” she snapped. “Today clearly isn’t about you.”

  “Draco,” Kara said softly, putting her hand softly on the small of my back. I looked down at her and nodded, keeping my mouth shut as my mom turned and walked away.

  “Come by the house later,” my dad said as he passed us.

  “I might have shit goin’ on tonight,” I replied.

  “It wasn’t a question,” he said, not looking back.

  I didn’t realize that Curtis was walking up more slowly until he was directly behind us.

  “Oh good,” he said with a chuckle. “All it took was a little fight in her honor and she let you back…in.”

  I told myself I’d heard him wrong as I slowly turned to face him.

  Chapter 9

  Kara

  “Don’t fucking do it,” I snapped, holding the back of Draco’s shirt in a death grip. “Not right now.”

  Curtis laughed humorlessly as he moved around us, walking toward the house.

  My stomach churned with anxiety and my skin felt hot as Draco watched his twin join the crowd of people standing closer to what used to be the house. Curtis’s words had stung. No, that didn’t even describe it. They burned all the way down to the bone.

  They affected me so much, in fact, that I felt naked. I wasn’t sure what to do with my hands, so I dropped them down at my sides. Draco’s presence loomed huge beside me and all I wanted to do was escape. Just for a minute. Just to get my shit together.

  I searched for my parents in the crowd and let out a small breath of relief that they weren’t anywhere near where Curtis had gone.

  “I’m going to go talk to my parents,” I said to Draco. Even I could tell that something in my voice was all wrong.

  “Kara—”

  “Just stay away from him,” I said, cutting Draco off. “Don’t let him goad you.”

  “I think I can control myself,” Draco replied tightly.

  “Good,” I said, only realizing after I’d replied that he was being sarcastic.

  I walked away quickly, scanning the yard for Charlie. She was standing with her arm around her mom’s shoulders while they stared of what was left of their house.

  I didn’t want to leave her behind, but I wasn’t sure I could stay, either. I had to get out of there.

  “What’s wrong?” Rose asked the second I’d reached her side, our earlier argument already forgotten. “You okay?”