Page 14 of Burning For You

She was damn lucky she hadn’t broken her neck.

“There isn’t a lot to really say,” her mother said. “You know what happened and that the fire overtook the house fast. You lived there and said there was stuff everywhere.”

Because Jenny Murphy was a slob. Yes, there was crap everywhere. There always was.

But there weren’t newspapers under the ashtray. No papers at all.

She’d remember that because it wasn’t as if her parents read anything.

Yet they said that was the cause of the fire. A lit cigarette hanging off the edge and igniting a wrapper or paper under it.

Yep, there were food wrappers and cardboard around too. Empty cracker boxes, shipping boxes that her parents never broke down and left in the corner of the living room.

Close by where the fire started.

It made sense, to the outside. Even to her teenage brain.

But adult her just wanted to put it to bed.

“I know,” she said. “I just don’t know how much I believe it.”

“Why?” her father asked.

She shrugged. “Because my parents didn’t waste cigarettes any more than they did the last drop of beer in a can.”

“You said they’d both been drinking a lot that night.”

She laughed. A harsh sound. “Not a lot. Their normal.”

A case of beer in a night for her parents wasn’t much to them. That was a weekday night. On the weekends, a case and a half easily between the two of them.

“They still could have done it without thinking. Try not to go down that path, Skye. Survivor’s guilt is a hard one to get through.”

“I know. You’re right. Anyway, I’m working, doing the freelance thing and then going to start my book. I just thought maybe you could shed some light on it. If you think of anything else, will you let me know?”

“Of course,” her mother said.

“I’m here,” Corbin yelled. “Where is the brat? I heard Tate got a hug and I want one.”

She stood when Corbin walked into the back of the family room. His arms were open wide and she didn’t hesitate to go into them.

“How did you find out I gave Tate a hug?”

Corbin lifted her in the air and spun her around much like Tate had done yesterday.

“Ash told me. He was over last night. He said he saw you.”

It took everything she had not to tense hearing Ash’s name.

Just like she’d lain in bed last night thinking of him in uniform, the dirt and sweat on his face even in the cool end-of-October breeze.

“I see you two are still attached at the hip,” she said.

Corbin put her down. “Always. Even when we were in college.”

“He didn’t go to college after his two years, did he?” she asked.

Skye knew the answer to that, but she didn’t want anyone to think she’d kept tabs on her brother’s best friend.