Page 111 of Burn With Me

“You need to tell us what the fuck you did to piss Abby off, and why she gives you the death stare whenever you’re around,” Pam crosses her arms and leans back in her chair.

“Nothing. Maybe she can’t handle that I’m so good looking, and she’s mad that she wants me so bad.”

A laugh escapes me when I see that he is serious. “The answer is no, asshole. Or you know what’ll happen—laxative in the cookies, and you won’t know when it happens.”

“She’s right. It might be tomorrow, or it might be a month from now. Anyway, I’m going to get another round from Sarah. Does anyone want anything?” Pam asks.

Sarah, the owner of The Bar, has been a saint, letting us throw all these parties here for Luna. It’s been the perfect place to have them along with our girls’ nights.

I look at Luke to see if he wants anything. “Nah, I’m good. I’m driving us home.” He pulls me closer, tucking me under his arm, and kisses the top of my head.

“I’ll take a Coke,” I say.

“You guys are so in love it’s gross. I don’t want to see this with my sister,” Sam says.

He finishes off the rest of his beer and walks away toward the only group of women I don’t recognize to find his flavor of the night.

My heart rate picks up when Noah walks back toward us, scanning the room, his eyebrows drawn low, concern evident on his features.

He walks up to the table and asks, “Has anyone seen Luna?”

“No, she went to the bathroom a few minutes ago, but she hasn’t come back yet. I just told Luke I was worried and was going to go look for her,” I tell him.

“I’ll find her. I’ll keep you guys posted.”

Luna

Gravel crunches under my shoes as I pace back and forth behind The Bar. I hear the muted sounds of the music and laughter as I try to get the courage to go back inside. When I told the girls I had never celebrated my birthday, I never expected a birthday party to actually happen.

I cannot put into words what I felt when we walked into The Bar for what I thought was girls’ night but was actually a surprise birthday party.

Which makes the thought of leaving so much harder.

I shiver as the temperature drops now that the sun has started to set.

Maybe I’ll go somewhere that is warm all year.

Just the thought has the ache in my chest growing.

This little town has become my family, but I know it’s almost time. I’ve already stayed so much longer than I normally do, but I’ve never felt so settled in a place as I do here.

I allowed myself to consider a future here, maybe figure out how I can go to college . . .anything.

Then there’s Noah.

Just the thought of him brings a smile to my face. He makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. Back at home, women just did what they were told, and that included who you marry.

I didn’t know it wasn’t normal to find out at eight who you were going to marry, and even more, find out it was chosen when you were under a year old. I was always told I was so lucky that I would be with the Lord’s son, that I was born to produce the next great heir.

At sixteen, the night before my wedding, I ran away because I knew I couldn’t go through with it.

“Why are you hiding at your own party, Lunabella?” I hear the one person I know will try the hardest to talk me out of leaving if he knew.

Lunabella? That’s new.

“It’s . . . a lot. I’m so thankful they did this for me, but I needed to step away,” I say as I put my hands in my pockets so I don’t reach out and touch him because that would be weird, right?

I don’t even know why I want to touch him all the time. I was raised with minimal human contact even though there were over a hundred people in our “family.”

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