Page 56 of The Fire
“The posters and the trophies?” I put my hands on my hips. “The books?”
“Someone recently told me that it waspretty sadto still have your high school trophies anyway.”
“I didn’t meanyou,” I gasped. “I meantme. I meant…”
“You didn’t want any reminders of a thing you weren’t good at?”
I tilted my head to one side and glared at him. “Stop.”
He grinned. “Just giving you shit, Parks.” He blew out a breath. “Gonna call Si now.”
I nodded and grabbed the leftover wings, then followed him to the kitchen where he’d left his phone.
“Hey, Marci. How’s it going?” I heard him ask. “You guys staying safe?”
“Ask her if she’s gotten any sleep at all,” I demanded as I wrapped the wings and put them in the fridge. “She was on last night.”
Jamie rolled his eyes at me and kept talking to Marci. “Yeah, I’ve got a little bit of trouble. Big tree limb came crashing through a couple of windows and maybe damaged the roof. Yeah, no, I think we’re safe. I was able to rig up some tarps around the branches to keep most of the snow out, but—Oh.” He looked at me again. “Yeah, I saidwe. Ah… Parker. Parker’s here with me.” He paused. “Yeah, that’s right. Parker Hoffstraeder,” he admitted, as though there were more than one Parker in our tiny town.
I bit my lip. In a town of inveterate gossips, Marci was possibly one of the biggest. “Think she’ll guess we fucked our way through the storm?” I whispered.
Apparently not quietly enough.
I could hear Marci’s screech across the kitchen as Jamie pulled the phone away from his ear and shook his head at me.
“No! Parker said we’ve been able totuck upand keepwarm,” Jamie said firmly, glaring at me. “No! Warm because of thefireplace,” he insisted.
I snickered, and Jamie shot me another look.
He sighed resignedly. “Marci, aboutmy house? No, I don’t think it hit any power lines, but I made sure the main breaker was turned off just in case. Uh huh. Yeah, the food should be fine. I have a generator I’ve been hooking up to the fridge for a couple hours here and there since this morning. But if Si could— Uh huh. I’d really appreciate that. Yeah, that’s plenty soon enough. Thanks.” He paused, rolling his eyes heavenward and shaking his head again. “Parker, Marci sayshiand…keep up the good work.”
Oh, Lord. “Thanks, Marci!” I called.
“So helpful,” Jamie said, sliding his phone onto the counter after he’d disconnected. “Remember I’m the one who’s gonna have to deal with the gossip while you and your plants are winging your way to Arizona.”
“Sorry,” I said, chastened. “I hadn’t thought.” In fact, I’d actively avoided thinking of Arizona all day.
“Yeah? Shocking.” Jamie blew out a breath and linked his fingers behind his neck, stretching his shoulder. It did all kinds of interesting things to his naked chest.
“Did you hurt yourself?” I asked.
“Not really. Just sore. Old injuries don’t always heal the greatest.”
I cleared my throat. “So. Molly’s room’s gonna need fixing up, huh? Have any… thoughts about that?”
Jamie rolled his eyes and his serious brown gaze came to mine. “You are as subtle as an elephant doing the tango. Just wanna let you know that.”
I shrugged, accepting the truth of this.
“I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Parker,” Jamie said with a sigh. “I keep the stuff in her room the way it was because I don’t know what else to do with it. I’m not delusional, okay? I know nobody’s coming back. It just feels like a really big deal to change it around. Like I’d be making a statement, or… I don’t even know. Like I’d have to have apurposefor changing things. And I don’t. I don’t know what I’d even use that space for. So I just don’t…doanything.”
I nodded slowly. “See, I get that. I do.” I hesitated, licking my lips, then said, “But maybe you could start by getting rid of the big stuff. You know? Notallof her things,” I added quickly. “Not the important stuff we just moved out of there—the books and artwork and stuff. But the furniture, maybe? The vintage clothes and whatnot? Molly would fuckingloveto know that some other artsy teenager was using her vintage dresses, or that some little kid had inherited her bedroom furniture. She was a sucker for all that helping-the-community, hearts-and-flowers bullshit.” I winked.
Jamie snorted. “She was.”
“And after that…” I shrugged. “Maybe things will become clearer. Once you clear away the stuff you don’t wanna keep from the past, you’ll figure out what you wanna do next.”
Jamie took a step forward, closing the distance between us, and lifted a hand to my jaw. He stroked one thick finger down the cord of my neck, pushing aside the collar of my t-shirt so he could reach my collarbone, and his eyes went molten.