Page 112 of Take This Heart
“I can’t believe you started a fire. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“Don’t start with me, Milo,” she snaps, her dark hair whipping across her face. “The Whitmans aren’t who you think they are.”
I blink, chest still heaving. “So you set fire to their property?”
“They don’t deserve all this.”
“Well, why don’t you enlighten me? Who does?”
She takes a step forward, too calm for someone who just committed arson.
Then she says the last thing I expected.
“Me.I’m your girlfriend’s sister.”
I stare at her, the words not computing.
“What? No. You’re mistaken. Goldie doesn’t have a sister. And you just tried to burn down her property? It doesn’t add up.”
Her jaw clenches. “It’s complicated.”
“Arson is not complicated.”
“I’m telling you, I’m their sister. I have just as much right to this property as Goldie and her brothers,” she says. “One big happy family, right?” She laughs, but tears are running down her cheeks.
“Hey!” A voice cuts through the haze.
I whip around to see Tully charging toward us.
“What did you just say?” he asks Ava.
“You heard me. This land is as much mine as it is yours. I’m yoursister,” she yells.
He looks frozen as they stare at each other. And then his eyes shoot to the scorched corner of the pavilion, the gas can, then to me and Ava, like he’s trying to puzzle it all out.
“I don’t understand,” he says.
He takes out his phone and texts someone, his fingers shaky.
“I managed to get the fire out, but the fire department is still on the way…” I tell him.
Ava tries to back away and Tully blocks her path.
“You’re not going anywhere. Who started the fire?” he asks.
Oh shit. Does he think I have something to do with this?
“She did. She lit it up like it was a damn bonfire,” I say, glaring at her.
Sirens wail in the distance. The sheriff arrives first and then the firetruck rumbles to a stop, red lights spinning across the clearing. Firefighters leap out and rush toward us, coming to a stop when they don’t see a fire.
I point to the scorched corner. “The fire was there and a lot of gasoline was poured all along there.” I point to the side of the pavilion.
They nod and douse every side of the pavilion and the surrounding brush for any stray embers. One of them sends word to the other firefighters that it’s under control.
The sheriff asks a few questions and then goes to talk to the firefighters.
My pulse is still thudding when I hear tires screech, and a few minutes later I see Goldie, her long legs eating the distance between us as she takes in the chaos.
