Page 149 of Sunkissed Colorado

“Actually, that’s something I need to talk to you guys about.” Connor scratched his forehead, taking the beer without drinking it. “I’m moving out.”

My first reaction was disappointment, but this was exactly what Darius and I had been talking about. The end of an era.

“You’re moving in with this new girl we’ve never even seen?” Darius asked skeptically.

Connor took out his phone. “You’ve met her.” He showed us a few pictures of the girl. “I wasn’t sure where this was going at first.”

I remembered that she’d spent the night a few times with Connor, but none of us had any idea it was something serious.

“But after seeing Callum with Zandra, I realized it was worth a try. I mean, if the most commitment-phobic man-slut in Silver Ridge could fall for someone…”

“Hey,” I protested.

Connor swept his shoulder-length hair back from his face. “I just mean, I realized I wanted to give it a shot. I didn’t want you guys giving me shit until I really knew how I felt about her.”

“Which is?” Niko prompted.

A grin appeared on Connor’s face, like he’d been trying to keep it in and couldn’t anymore. “We’re moving in together. It’s happened really fast, but it feels right.”

Darius wrapped his arms around Connor and Niko. “Look at the three of you, growing up. All getting serious. I’ll probably be next.”

“Not so fast,” Niko said. “Actually, I’ve been thinking about breaking up with mine. I’m not ready for the one. I’m not old like you guys.”

The rest of us booed. I scoffed. “Thirties isn’t old. Besides,it has nothing to do with age or growing up. It’s about finding the right person.”

“Amen to that.” Connor held up his fist, and I bumped it.

Darius tapped his taster against the cups Connor and I were holding. “Us old guys have come a long way though. From troublemaking football players at Silver Ridge High to upstanding citizens.”

“We were always upstanding citizens,” Connor said.

Darius and I shared an amused glance. “I dunno. I remember those old bonfire parties,” Dare quipped.

The mention of the bonfire parties turned the bubbly feeling in my stomach to something sour.

Because it reminded me of the night Jessa died, and that was the one piece of the story Zandra still didn’t have answered. Who was Jessa’s secret crush, and was he there that night? The lingering uncertainty didn’t sit right with me. I was proud of Z for finding closure after all these years, yet if I could somehow solve that final mystery for her, I’d do it.

I took the last sip of stout and tossed the cup into a nearby bin. “You guys have heard the whole saga about Mrs. Mackenzie and Leo and what happened after Jessa’s death by now, right?”

They all nodded seriously. “Sure,” Connor said. “Awful that Zandra had to go through all that. Leo too. He was in my year at school. If I could go back in time…”

“Same.” I nodded. “Trust me, your brain can get stuck going around in circles thinking like that. But it’s hard not to.”

After Zandra had told me about Jessa’s secret crush on a football player at our school, I’d briefly wondered about Connor and Darius. Neither had been seniors at the same time as us, but they’d been on the team.

But I’d dismissed that possibility weeks ago, pretty much as soon as it had occurred to me. Because I distinctly remembered both of them being at the bonfire party that night. It was the first one of the year, so it had been memorable already, butafter we all heard about Jessa dying the next morning, the party got seared into my mind.

But I’d never asked Connor or Darius who they thought Jessa’s football crush could’ve been. Or if there was a possibility that one of the other guys slipped away from the party that night.

“Did any of you ever hear about someone from our team being interested in Jessa?” I asked. Despite the rest of the story of the Mackenzie family spreading through town, this part still wasn’t well known. “Zandra thought someone else was there at the creek that night, maybe Jessa’s mystery guy, but the police didn’t believe it. They basically convinced her she’d imagined it, and she still doesn’t really know.”

The guys all seemed to think, knitting their brows. Then shook their heads.

“It was a long shot,” I admitted. “But if anything occurs to you…”

Just then, all of our phones buzzed. And we knew what that meant.

I ran over to Zandra, who immediately could tell something was up. “I gotta go. We just got called to a fire in the foothills.”