Page 74 of The Edge of Summer
He holds out a hand. “C’mere. Stay with me for a bit?”
I should say no. I should put my clothes back on—myclothes, not the borrowed ones of his—and ask him to drive me home. I should, but I don’t. Instead I take his hand and let him pull me into bed with him. And I definitely don’t fall asleep tucked against his side.
Definitely not.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
LUKE
“We’re respondingto a call at 148 Pine Street. Structure fire. Possible residents trapped inside.”
In a place the size of Kip Island, save for the tourists, you know pretty much everyone. There is a good chance that any given call will hit a little too close to home for comfort. But hearing those words out of my captain’s mouth, I know that no call I have taken before could have prepared me for this.
My house is on fire, and my fiancée and niece might be inside.
“Shit,” Jodi curses. “That’s Luke’s house.”
The panic threatens to rush in, but I tamp it down. Gabe, however, is unable to do the same. The pure fear in his eyes when he turns to me is almost enough to wash away the numbness I’ve managed to erect. Seeing that look on my brother’s face kills me.
“Abbie,” he says.
That’s all he has to say. I understand. The whole crew understands. Abbie has been a staple at the stationsince birth. Everyone starts moving faster, donning our gear and loading into the fire engine. My hands shake as I struggle to latch my seatbelt.
The drive across town feels short and long all at once. The sound of the siren above us is drowned out by the pounding of my heart. A million thoughts race through my mind. How did this happen? Did they make it out? Are they hurt?
The second we pull to a stop, I’m out of the vehicle. My head whips from left to right as I assess the scene. A group of people have spilled out onto the grass from the front of the house. All of them are strangers. I don’t have the time or the wherewithal to question why they’re here. When I finally spot Kristina, I don’t hesitate. I race across the yard and pull her into my arms.
“Oh, thank God,” I mutter, running a hand over her hair. The short blonde strands slip through my fingers. “You’re okay.”
After a moment much too short, I pull back to inspect her. She seems unharmed, though I find myself supporting most of her weight. What the hell? When I loosen my grip, she starts to sway.
“Kristina,” I say. Her eyes are hazy. It seems as if she’s looking straight through me. “Where’s Abbie?”
She doesn’t answer, and I can feel Gabe’s panic as if it was my own. Abbie has to be out here. Because if she’s not…
“Please,” my brother pleads, his voice cracking. “Where is she?”
Still, Kristina doesn’t answer. It’s like she doesn’t even know we’re here. Is she drunk? High? She was supposed to be watching Abbie tonight. I trusted her with that.
I grasp her shoulders, fighting the urge to shake her. “Where is she, Kristina?”
My fiancée finally blinks up at me, seeing me for the first time since I got here. “Oh, Luke,” she says, a loopy smile stretching her lips. “You made it!”
Frustration and anger grip me by the throat. All the chaos in the world couldn’t compare to the tumult swirling inside me.
“Kristina. Where thefuckis my niece?”
When I wake, my heart is racing. I haven’t had that particular dream in a long time. Or rather, that memory. It comes to me in bits and pieces every so often, but almost never as clearly as this. Tonight, the whole ordeal played out in my head like a movie, each minute detail accounted for. The endless drive from the station, Kristina’s zoned out state, the panic when I didn’t know where Abbie was.
The late afternoon sun, now done hiding behind storm clouds, filters into my bedroom through the open curtains. I sit up, bracing my forearms on bent knees as I try to catch my breath. My pulse thunders in my ears. I hadn’t intended to fall asleep. These nightmares are unpredictable, and I never wanted to subject Delilah to that.
Delilah.
I feel her hand as it hesitantly rests on my shoulder. I expect it to make me feel itchy—being touched after these nightmares always feels a little like sand beneath my flesh—but her cool skin is a soothing balm to the burning of mine.
“Are you alright?”
