Page 11 of Burning Embers

I squint my eyes at her in a glare, but she simply flashes me an unrepentant grin. With a huff of irritation, I roll my eyes and allow Hale to haul me to my feet.

“Jake, Lissa, grab the bags for me, please,” he instructs.

Jake and Lissa don’t even complain as they sling the numerous shopping bags over their arms, though I can’t help but feel a twinge of guilt.

Both because they’re carrying my new clothes…

And because Hale bought me all of this stuff to begin with.

Whenever I tried to protest I didn’t need anything, he simply shook his head and jabbed a finger at my face.

“You’re getting it,” he would say firmly.

Anytime I even stared at something longer than a second, he would add it to the cart—aka Jake’s arms.

“Where are we going now? Haven’t you tortured me enough?” I’m only half teasing.

Yes, I’m incredibly grateful for everything Hale has bought me with seemingly no strings attached—though I still can’t help but be wary over his intentions—but my legs hurt, my toes ache from being shoved into too-small shoes, and I swear I have a perpetual wedgie from the trip to Victoria’s Secret.

“You’ll need a phone and a new laptop before classes on Monday,” Hale says, his tone as nonchalant as if he’s discussing the weather instead of a few hundred dollars’ worth of merchandise I’ve never had before in my life.

I gape at him, momentarily speechless. The breath quite literally is siphoned from my body.

I know he said it before but…

“No.” I shake my head adamantly. “I don’t need that stuff. It’s too much.”

“You’re turning eighteen in a few months.” Hale wraps an arm around my shoulders and begins to steer me towards a store I hadn’t noticed before.

I don’t recognize the name, but from the number of gadgets displayed in the window, I reason it’s an electronic store.

“You have the freedom to do what you want to do. However, Gerry and I simply ask that you check in from time to time, which you’ll need a phone to do. We worry. There’ll be rules, of course, and a set curfew, but we can discuss that later. And a laptop is mandatory for all seniors. I would allow you to use Jake’s old one, but he shattered it?—”

“Accidentally,” Jake pipes in.

Hale nods. “Right. Heaccidentallytried to throw it at a bat that had somehow made its way into the house. And heaccidentallymissed the bat and sent it sailing out the window.”

Jake leans forward to stage-whisper to me, “The bat was trying to eat my face.”

“Thebat,” Lissa interjects, “was actually a butterfly. But Jake just likes to change the story to keep his street cred.”

“I named him Perriwrinkle,” Hale adds.

A chuckle slips free unbidden, and an unfamiliar warmth unfurls in my stomach. God, what would it be like to be a part of this family? Truly a part of it? To have inside jokes and acamaraderie that only come from innately knowing the people you’re with?

A desperate, gapingneedcracks my chest open.

A need to be a part of this group.

A need to be loved and wanted.

A need to not be shoved aside like trash the second someone gets tired of me.

“Ethan’s working, correct?” Hale says, tugging me out of my internal reverie.

“Yeah.” Jake dips his chin towards the window, where I see a man crouched behind the counter, sifting through a box of cords.

“He’s your friend from school, right?” I ask.

---