Mrs. Gerald nodded. “Coming right up.”
Clara watched someone across the café, and Becket followed her gaze to see a woman with short brown hair, red-rimmed glasses, and a laptop bag slung over her shoulder standing near the counter.
“Who’s that?” Becket asked.
“Scarlett.”
Aspen turned to look also. “The roommate who doesn’t talk to you?”
Jesse frowned. “She doesn’t talk to you?”
“Nope. But that’s her loss.”
“Why do you keep her if you don’t get along?” Jesse asked.
“We don’t not get along. We just don’t talk,” Clara clarified. “And I need a roommate because I make a conscious effort to only work the number of hours I want, so financially, I need her. Plus, she’s quiet and always out, so it suits me.”
The woman turned, coffee in hand, and as she headed toward the door, she glanced Clara’s way. His sister smiled and waved, but the woman only gave a brief nod before stepping outside.
That was a bit cold.
“What did you do to her?” Becket asked.
“I told you, we’re just not friends. It’s fine. Life’s too short to care about who likes who, and it’s certainly nothing either of my big bad brothers needs to intervene in.”
Jesse lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I could pull her up on some technicality and scare her.”
Clara snorted. “You? Mr. Play by the Book?”
“It’s true,” Becket confirmed. “I’m the intimidating one out of the two of us.”
Jesse shook his head, a hint of a smile on his face.
Becket chuckled, but the smile dropped when he spotted Teddy and Kristina by the counter. Teddy looked his way but didn’t smile, just gave a small chin lift, and Becket returned it.
They’d barely talked since the argument after the bridge incident. And yeah, Becket needed to find a way to move on and let it go. Maybe even apologize to Teddy. Because what had happened hadn’t only been his fault. And they worked together, for Christ’s sake.
But, damn, it was hard. Sky had almost died that day, and it wasn’t something he’d be forgetting for a while, if ever.
CHAPTER23
Something pulled Sky from her sleep. What? A sound? A smell?
It was nearly impossible to open her eyes, exhaustion trying to pull her back under, but she frowned on her next inhale.
What was that? Smoke?
A crackling noise had her eyes shooting open. Then she saw the light. Bright light from the doorway.
She shot up to a sitting position, and the world narrowed to the flames. Bright, angry flames that, even from her bed, she could see engulfed her hallway.
Fear and panic and shock snapped over her skin, making her breaths come faster and her heart thump harder.
Charlie!
She glanced around the room.
“Charlie?” she called.
