Page 69 of Burn With Me

“Wait, say that one more time. I was distracted.”

“Just that I think I’m going to switch from working at the practice to working at the hospital. I’ve been talking to some of the nurses in the ER, and I think I want to try it.”

“I think that’s a great idea. You’ll kick ass anywhere you are, and I know damn well you aren’t treated well at your office now by the—” I suck in a breath because I can’t believe my eyes.

At the end of the aisle, grabbing something from the sale endcap, is a man who looks like Leo, but he’s too skinny, wearing clothes that are slightly too big and look like they have been worn for far too long. With sunken eyes, half his face is covered in facial hair that looks like it hasn’t been cut in months.

“Amelia. I swear to god if you zoned out mid-conversation.”

I hear her, but I’m just frozen in place.

“What the fuck . . . Are you good? I swear to god, if you die, I will fucking reverse haunt you so hard,” she says. “For real, I need you to say something. Do you need me to call 911?”

“I swear to god Leo is standing at the end of the aisle,” I whisper.

“There’s no way. Are you sure? Why the fuck would he be in our small town? That city boy would rather eat nails.”

My eyes stay locked on the man at the end of the aisle. “Well . . . no, I’m not sure. He looks . . . not put together, and he has so much facial hair. So maybe not,” I say as the doubt creeps in.

Because she’s right, there’s no way he would be here in Griffin’s Den.

“I think you’re just worked up with everything. I can’t imagine that he’s here. He has no reason to be.”

“You’re right, unless he got transferred over here.” I flinch when someone near me drops a box of pasta on the floor.

“Are you almost done?”

“Yeah, I have three things left.”

Although the last thing I want to do is finish shopping. I want to leave my cart here in the middle of the aisle and just leave.

“Okay, grab them and check out.”

“I kind of want to just leave,” I admit as I grip the handle of my shopping cart so tightly my knuckles turn white. “That can’t be him, right? That would be stupid. There’s no way he’s here.”

He would never let himself go like that, and he would never step foot in a small town if it wasn’t for work.

“His social media is still pictures of DC as recently as two days ago. So, unless he’s traveling for work, it can’t be him,” she says.

“Wait, you still follow him on his socials?” I ask, slightly offended, grabbing the ranch from the shelf and tossing it into the cart.

“Well . . . kind of. He never blocked me. So I figured I’d keep it if we ever had to stalk him. You aren’t mad, right?”

I smirk because that’s one hundred percent something she’d do. “Nah, that makes sense. Okay, last thing acquired. Heading to check out.”

I make my way to the front of the store to the self-checkout.

“You know what’s nice? No one stopped to talk to me today,” I tell her as I scan the store, trying to see if the man is following me.

“Lucky bitch. I love most everyone in town, but I also try to shop when it’s slow for that reason.”

“Same. I planned my day around this.”

I scan the last thing and throw everything in my cart as I pay for the food.

“Oh, speaking of today, sorry I was rambling and didn’t ask how it went with the professor that came down,” she says.

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” I tell her and grab my receipt. “She took a ton of notes and gave great feedback and some new ideas, and what the fuck . . . why me?” I whisper as I walk to the exit.

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