Page 16 of Burning For You

“Skye is handing out hugs,” Brenna said.

“Then where is mine?” Holden asked.

She freely went into her younger brother’s arms, then stepped out. “I’m officially all hugged out,” she stated firmly. “But I am hungry. I’m sure Mom has all sorts of snacks.”

“I do,” her mother said. “And I’ll get them. You all sit and talk.”

“I’ll help,” she said.

Her mother shook her head. “I want to tell you no, but you won’t listen.”

“Nope. I’m used to helping. You know that.”

She’d made sure that she took her turn in the Lancaster house. Cleaning, cooking, doing everything and anything they asked.

Hell, before they even asked.

It was still less than she’d done with her biological parents.

That was how she thought of them now.

It was hard for her to let go. Not emotionally.

She always felt she was a servant to them rather than a child.

A verbal punching bag who was born to them because maybe they were too careless for birth control.

The letting go part came in the form of her just being able to open up and let anyone in.

It took years for that, and thankfully, she hadn’t regretted one second of it.

5

CENTER OF ATTENTION

“Ash,” his mother said. “I’m so glad you could make it for dinner.”

“Who else is coming?”

“Everyone but Blaze and Arden. Blaze is working.”

“Clay is probably here every night,” he said, smirking, and walking over to the counter to snag a slice of cheese she was arranging on a cutting board.

“You know better than that,” his father said, coming in. “Even when he was single he wasn’t coming for dinner.”

“No. You were still bringing him food though.”

His mother laughed. “I’d do the same for you. I did the same for you when you lived in the cabin.”

The little cabin at the edge of the property that everyone but Gale had lived in at some point.

It gave them all the freedom to have their own space.

He was in the cabin when Ford was in the ranch. Clay was in the service, Gale and Blaze in college.

When Ford got his first place, Ash could have moved to the ranch but chose not to.

Too much work to pack shit up, too much space for him to care for on top of it.