Page 27 of Burn for You

I grab her hand in mine. “It’s fine, I get it.”

“You could always stay in our spare bedroom?”

“I think I’d rather stay on the street,” I laugh.

“Oh, come on,” she says. “We aren’t that awful to be around.”

“You know that’s not it,” I give her a nudge, “but you guys are finally settled. I don’t want to disturb that. I’ll talk to Marina. She might know of somewhere.”

The rumble of a car engine sounds, and the surveyor drives away. Marina sighs as she walks up to us. “Well, should we go in?”

The first person I called was Marina, my heart breaking as I told her the beautiful home she provided me with was now charred. “I am so, so sorry, Marina?—”

“Stop apologizing,” she sighs, before her eyes soften as she looks at me. She grabs my hand in hers. “It’s okay. It was a mistake.”

A mistake. The fire started because I fell asleep with the kettle on the stove. I was out so deep that I didn’t even hear it whistling. I didn’t wake up until my lungs were fighting the smoke that was thick in the air, and the kitchen was swallowed by flames. I’ve never felt the rush of fear pulsing through my veins the way I did last night. I’ve never felt the equal rush of relief the way I did when I saw Rafael standing in the doorway.

I never thought I’d say that sentence, but he didn’t hesitate a second to help me, and in that moment, I couldn’t imagine anyone I wanted to see more. He was so steady, his voice so strong, his decisions so sure. The only time I saw him falter was when he called the fire department. I saw the tremble in his hands, and in that moment, all I wanted to do was wrap him in a hug. And again when I coughed in the back of the ambulance, the look in his eyes…he looked so scared.

“Let’s go together.” Isla grabs my hand from beside me, giving me a tug towards the cottage.

I rip the tape off the doorframe and take a step inside. Debris crunches beneath my feet with every step I take, and the sound reminds me of that fear once again. Of the place collapsing around me, and all I could do was cry. I’ve never felt so helpless. All those self-defense classes Isla’s brother Miles made us take back in college couldn’t help me then.

“Shit,” Isla curses.

I step over the big beam blocking our path. The beam that nearly kept me stuck in here, if not for Rafael. Rafael, the man who hates me with a passion, but who didn’t hesitate for a single second to jump over that beam smothered in flames to save me.

“Well, he was right,” Marina says. “The kitchen is gone. But everything else looks alright.”

My eyes roam the rest of the space. The dining room and chairs are nothing more than charred splinters scattered across the floor. The couch has a hole burnt in the back, but other than that, the living room is still somehow in one piece, and my bedroom was untouched by the flames. The firefighters got here just in time to contain the flames before they spread even further.

My attention is brought back to the kitchen. To the one coal-colored mug hanging on a now black metal hook. I walk over to it, trying to carefully take the mug off the hook, but it crumbles in my palm. My collection is nothing but ashes now.

Tears well in my eyes as I look over the ruins that were my sanctuary less than twenty-four hours ago. The sanctuary I ruined.

Marina lets out a sigh from behind me. “Come on then, let’s get you packed up.”

“To go where?”

“Let’s start with the bar.”

When we walkthrough the door to Marina’s, I’m immediately swept into big arms. “Oh my god, I was so worried about you.” Heath’s deep voice infiltrates my system.

I sink into his warm embrace. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” He pulls away. “No bruises or cuts?”

“All good,” I say. How could I get a bruise when all I did was freeze?

“I thought you could do with one of these,” Caio says from where he’s sitting at the bar, a beer sitting cracked open in front of him. Isla moves over to him, and he gathers her into his arms before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

I let out a breath and sit down on the stool next to him. “You have no idea.”

I delight in the feeling of the cold liquid trailing down my throat, cooling me from the inside out. I’ve been hot since last night, and I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that my skin is on fire.

“Where the hell do I go from here?” I put my head in my hands, threading my fingers in my hair.

“You could stay with us,” Caio says.

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