Page 277 of Burn Bright

Tom hears my territorial bite, and he’s grinning like he just won.

“I asked you two to choose,” I remind them. “Maybe just think about how my girlfriend will be spending the night. I can’t crash at the Honors House with the curfew. So Harriet will be sleeping in my bed with me sometimes, and if that makes either of you uncomfortable, then opt out now.”

Eliot laughs at the worduncomfortable, and Tom acts like it’s no problem. While we near our apartment door, my phone buzzes.

I hang back to check my text from Winona.

I’d reached out to her, finally. I’m unsure of how many messages my family tried to send while I was gone. None wentthrough since I wiped my phone. It took a while for me to download all my storage from the Cloud, but I have the same number.

Winona said she’d texted. Called. I knew she must’ve been concerned. We haven’t had a full-blown phone call yet. I want to see her in person first, but since she’ll be at the lake house and I’m staying in Philly, I’m not sure if our paths will cross during the holidays. We might have to make time, so I told her I was sorry for the epic cold wind, that it’d be better to explain face-to-face, and we should catch up soon. Before we inevitably see each other for family events and trips.

Winona Meadows

Catching up sounds good. What are you thinking? Breakfast? Quarry swim? Ducati ride to the death?

I smile a little and send back.

Ben Cobalt

Too cold for quarry swim. No dying, please. Breakfast is perfect. Our fav vegan spot?

Winona Meadows

I’ll be there.

I inhale a deeper breath and think about messaging back one more time, but she beats me to it.

Winona Meadows

I missed you.

I send ame toojust as Eliot asks, “You okay, brother?”

“Yeah,” I clear the knot in my throat. I don’t expect my friendship with Winona to ever be the same after what’shappened, but then again, with time and age, it was always going to change. I just want to stop the erosion, so new life can sprout.

Once we reach the apartment, Eliot unlocks the door, and the scent of eggs, turkey sausage, and maple syrup flood my nostrils as I go inside. Beckett babies sausage links in a frying pan while Charlie is on a barstool, a paperback folded in one hand while he drinks fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Eliot tosses the mail in a basket on an entryway table, then beelines for the stove to help Beckett. Eliot is the only one who ever really cooked when we were kids. I think, mostly, he liked conversing with our family’s chef, and likewise, Chef Michael enjoyed teaching Eliot knife skills and how to make a perfect soufflé and to poach eggs.

I hear Tom ask Beckett to weigh in on the roommate debate, but my gaze is drawn toward the living room. Toward this short blonde who crouches at an eight-foot Christmas tree. Her hair sticks up wildly like she also just rolled out of bed—because she did. With me.

Harriet is wearing my MVU sweatshirt over black sweatpants. The burgundy fabric engulfs her small frame and hangs past her thighs. Yeah, I love that she put on my clothes. I didn’t see her do that before I left for the lobby.

She’s busy using a non-contact voltage tester to find the defective light bulb in the strand. It’s been her mission ever since we put up the tree and it wouldn’t light.

Just as I’m about to move, the fir tree illuminates row by row and reaches the star at the top.

I smile and give her a loud two-finger whistle. “Way to go, Fisher.”

She rotates around to loud, hearty applause from me and my brothers, who grin with pride. Even Charlie sets down his book and puts his hands together.

Her fair cheeks go rosy, but she takes a stiff curtsey, plucking the sides of my sweatshirt like it’s a dress. I just want her in my arms. Her gaze soars up to the tree. “Why am I not surprised. You all choseblue.”

The tree is lit with only blue lights.

“The gods’ color,” Eliot decrees dramatically.

Beckett laughs.