“Don’t get me wrong, Iabsolutelyhad it out for your bees. But I’m able to recognize my mistake in that now.”
“I’m just not used to that.”
“Used to what?” J.P. ran his fingers along the side of his neck.
“Someone who can admit when they are wrong,” she said. “And for what it’s worth, I was wrong too.”
Eyebrow lifting to a point, J.P. challenged her with one look.
“I was wrong in thinking my heart wasn’t ready to open itself up again.” She looked him directly in the eye when she added, “Because I think it already has.”
Dinner was perfect,topped with a literal cherry they split from the Sundown Sundae.
They held hands as they walked to the car, and J.P. only let go long enough to hold Nora’s passenger door open and guide her inside. In the cab, he stretched across the bench seat to take her hand into his again, using the other to guide the steering wheel as they made the drive back to Harmony Ridge.
They didn’t talk much now; dinner was the time for that. Now they just reveled in the companionable quiet, neither feeling the need to fill in the blank space.
Things were never like this with Kenzie. When they didn’t have something to say, she would pull out her phone and mindlessly scroll through social media, watching videos of cats or the latest ten-second dance trend. Silence made her nervous, like she wasn’t at ease unless there was background noise.
Nora didn’t appear to need any of that. Her thumb would idly trace the back of J.P.’s hand. Her gaze would swing his direction and then back through the windshield as her mouth perked into a contented smile.
J.P. rolled the windows down and let the evening air whisk across their skin, sending their hair curling around their faces. Nora didn’t complain. They were completely in sync.
As the truck traveled up the final incline before twisting to dip into the valley below, J.P. took a snapshot of the moment in his mind. A freeze frame of this exact instant, a feeling he never wanted to forget. It was easy joy and blooming hope, and he wanted to sit in this feeling forever.
Nora suddenly yanked her hand out of his.
“J.P.!” Her voice wasn’t a shout, but after the long stretch of quiet, it sounded significantly louder than normal. Her pointer finger thrust out in front of her. “Do you see that?”
Right where the Ridge met the valley floor, he glimpsed it: thick, billowing clouds that resembled the ones traveling across the blue sky earlier in the day. Only now, instead of puffy white, they were black. Even with the navy night sky as the backdrop, the darkened hue was visible.
He gave a single nod.
“Where’s it coming from?” She squinted and leaned forward until her seatbelt locked her in place. “Can you tell where it’s coming from?”
Panic and terror ripped through her voice, those same sensations lancing through J.P.’s gut.
He couldn’t speak the words.
“J.P.?” His name came out on a desperate cry. “Please don’t tell me it’s what I think it is.”
So he didn’t.
He drove in silence, his foot on the gas pedal, his heart in this throat, and his hopes completely shredded.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Two fire trucks had already beaten them to the scene. Of course, they wouldn’t let Nora and J.P. anywhere near the property when they rushed up to it, frantic for information. They were given orders to stand back, that the crew had things under control and needed their space to work.
The closest they could get was Nora’s porch, so they gathered there, trying to collect themselves. They were in shock. There was no other way to describe it. Nora knew this from experience. When she’d lost her grandmother, there were full days when she would walk around like a zombie, numb enough that she couldn’t even feel pain or sadness. Just a robot going through the motions. She felt absolutely nothing, anesthetized to everything.
That’s how it was now.
Flames licked the lower level of the old ranch house up to the top, immense walls of orange that taunted them as it danced around, consuming more of the structure with each bend and wave and dip.
And J.P. and Nora just stood by as if they were watching a movie reel, entranced by the glowing scene before them.
Scarlett Harmony, Miles Callahan’s fiancé, arrived shortly after they had and was given the same directive to keep her distance.
