Page 21 of Burning For You

Like it was her choice or in her control what happened to them. Or his resentment that the Lancasters treated her so well.

She’d tried to stay in contact with Sean after the fire. He was the one who pushed her away.

He was the one who wouldn’t answer her calls or texts once he graduated and they didn’t see each other in school anymore.

It was just another grief she had to deal with. The last part of her old life.

Which made saying yes to being adopted so much nicer.

“I’m living here now,” she said. “You?”

“In the area,” Sean said.

Just like Sean. Never one to really give her much of an answer.

“How long have you been back?” she asked. “Last I knew you’d left town.”

“Couple of years. What are you doing here?”

The pump clicked, she returned the nozzle and shut the tab on the car.

“You mean like what did I come back for or what am I doing in terms of work?”

“The second,” Sean said.

Sean was searching her eyes. Looking more than she was used to.

She couldn’t figure out what was going through his brain and never had been able to before.

Sometimes seeing him brought back so much of that night.

The memories of it all. His fight with their father. Her cooking dinner and cleaning up, going to her room to finish schoolwork.

His TV had been on, she remembered that.

She didn’t remember when she woke up if she still heard it or not. Probably not, since it had a timer.

It wasn’t the first time he’d done that. Put his TV on, snuck out when everyone was sleeping and came home later.

She only knew because their mother had caught him out before, not that Jenny Murphy ever checked in on her kids when she came home from work.

No loving gestures to tuck them in or kiss them on the forehead. See if they were snug in tight for the night.

Not like Carrie Lancaster did, even when she was sixteen.

“I still have the same job I had before. But I’m remote now. The company didn’t want to pay for the office space when most of us could work from home. I figured I might as well move where it’s a fraction of the cost and keep the same pay.”

“And back here is where you wanted to come?” Sean asked.

“It’s not like I had anywhere else better to go. I had to stay in New York State.”

She didn’t have a lot of friends. No one from high school she still talked to. No one from college either.

She’d always been somewhat of a loner and it’d done her well in life.

Kind of like Sean. A loner that no one understood. Whether he did well in his life or not, she didn’t really know.

She moved around to the other side of her car, shocked that there was part of her that wanted some kind of connection to Sean.