Page 10 of When We Burn

“I’m fine.” I keep my voice quiet. “I do this almost every night.”

Suddenly, his face is above me, frowning down at me and blocking my view.

“You’re in my way,” I say, proud of myself for sounding so unperturbed. I wish I didn’t react to Bridger’s presence like I do. My whole body’s suddenly tingling. Can he see how my nipples have hardened through the tank top?

“What are you doing?”

I take a long, deep breath. “I’m enjoying this warm concrete, staring at the stars, and meditating, if you must know. It’s nice.”

“You’re—”

“Try it.” I gesture with my hand to the spot beside me. I don’t know why exactly I did that because now he’s going to stay here, with me, and I’ll just be awkward, but my mouth ran away from me. “Lie down and look up.”

He pauses, but then he actually does what I say. He lies down next to me, maybe a foot away.

“Itiswarm.”

“Mm-hmm. Is Birdie sleeping?”

“Yeah, and I have her monitor on my phone. She’s fine.”

We lie in silence for a few minutes, taking in the night noises and looking at the stars.

“How was your date?” he asks at last. He doesn’t sound happy with his question at all, and I wish he’d forgotten I’d said anything.

“I didn’t have a date.” I feel my cheeks heat, but I steady my breathing. “That was a lie.”

“Why did you lie?”

I swallow hard. “Because I wanted out of there, and that was the first thing that popped into my head. I’m a horrible liar. You should have seen through me.”

“I used to be able to see through you,” he says quietly. “But I don’t really know you all that well anymore.”

“True.” I lick my lips. “I have a question. You don’thave to answer it if you don’t want to, but I have to ask.”Good grief, Dani, why are you asking this now?

“Shoot.”

I still can’t look at him. If I look at him, I’ll get tongue-tied and awkward again, so I just keep staring up at the stars. He doesn’t owe me an explanation, but this has stuck with me for the last five years.How could he have liked her? Wanted her?I may never get this chance again, so I decide to be brave and ask.

“Why Angela?”

I feel his head whip to the side to stare at me, but I keep my eyes up.

“That’s the question?”

“Yeah. That’s the question. Why her?”

He’s quiet for a minute. “Look at me.”

“Nope. And if you’re not going to answer, just say it’s none of my business.”

He curses under his breath.

Angela was in my class, which means we’re the same age. She was horrible, and she stayed in Bitterroot Valley after high school to work in her dad’s store. From what I heard, when I was a senior in college, Bridger hooked up with her, she got pregnant, and they got married.

And I wanted to die.

“Jesus, Dani.”

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