Page 20 of Up In Smoke

Tears pressed at the back of her eyes. God, she’d moved to Redemption, sight unseen, knowing no one. She'd stayed in a shitty little apartment outside of town for a while, making sure she wanted to stay and keep the job. Then she’d found the little house. Establishing herself with a loan and making her downpayment on her own.

But now she had friends bringing her fridges. The combination of the fire stealing everything, and the town people coming together to give as much back to her as possible, was more than her emotions could take. She was swinging wildly.

It didn’t help that the whole time she'd had to keep her mouth shut. She was still undecided about what she would do with the painful knowledge about Luke's brothers and the fires.

“I'm going to stay with you tonight,” Jo announced.

Ivy almost asked if Leo would mind, but she knew that if Jo had offered to stay, she’d already told her new boyfriend. And neither of them was one to get in the way or override the other’s decisions. Ivy admired that. She didn’t intend to marry, but she might one day want a partnership like Jo had.

Leo loved Jo just the way she was. Jo, of course, was tall, athletic, and beautiful, and managed to move to town and snag one of the hottest guys around within just a month. Ivy, on the other hand, had had no such luck. Not that she'd wanted it.

Beside her, Jo was grinning. “We're going to order a pizza. And we're going to run to the store for some ice cream. And we're going to put it in that nice new fridge.”

“It won't get cold that fast,” Ivy told her.

“Oh no,” Aiden said, “it's probably still cold. Dad used it as the garage fridge. Don’t worry, he needed to move it because he got a big freezer. It's barely been unplugged for an hour. It should be chugging right along in time for y'all to have your ice cream tonight.”

He’d smiled at the two women, and slowly the firefighters and the locals who'd come to help out their neighbor stepped up and wished her good luck. They gathered up their supplies as the night began to settle in around them. The days were short, but Luke was right and he’d managed to get it done for her.

She watched as he joined the small crew doing the heavy lifting on the fridge.

Did she now owe him her silence? Was he trying to buy it?

He couldn’t understand that she’d been silent for far, far too long before and she would never do it again. If he was trying to manipulate her, he would have a shock in store. She hated thinking that way of the man who’d been nothing but kind to her. Of the man she was starting to feel she was truly seeing for the first time. But she wasn’t able to shake the old fears.

The fridge was slid into place, the guys handling it carefully, and not scratching the new gray tiles she and Luke had laid last week. When it was in place and chugging softly, they all told her congratulations, and that they loved the work she'd done. Then they’d gathered in the front yard in the dark to say their goodbyes. The Kellys took their empty truck and backed down the driveway. Even Luke left.

Jo grabbed her hand, tugging her to the front door. But, as Ivy followed along, her cold fingers twined in her best friend’s, she turned and looked down the dark street, an uneasy feeling nagging at her.

Chapter Sixteen

Luke didn't make the conscious decision to turn the wheel, he just found himself headed toward her house.

He hadn't seen Ivy in two days. He'd worked a full shift. Helped put out a car fire, checked the wiring in an attic because it “smelled funny” and saved a full-blown house fire from happening, and he’d helped pull a puppy out of the river. That had been a rousing shift. That there’d been no sign of the arsonist helped.

The night they’d celebrated getting her siding up, he’d left Ivy with Jo. The next morning, both he and Jo had showed up early for A-shift. Jo had been brighter and cheerier than he’d expected, given the slumber party and ice cream from the night before. It made him feel better, that Ivy had done okay her first night back in her own home.

But he hadn't asked his fellow firefighter about the woman he was thinking of far too much. That morning, he'd gone home and slept off as much of the long shift as he could. When he’d finally woken up, the daylight was fading, but he’d still driven around town, checking out his own past here in Redemption to see if he could find something.

Maybe he could catch a spark before it became a flame. And if he was very lucky, maybe see who started it and stop the whole process before it got too ugly.

But he’d had no luck. His mother hadn't even been home. By the time he’d knocked on her door it was fully dark. Though he wondered where she might be at this hour, it wasn’t his place to ask.

He drove a little more of his regular route, thinking it was time to mix it up, or people would get suspicious of him. With the snow beginning to fall, just as predicted, he wasn't able to see anything.

Would their arsonist slack off with the winter coming on?

Some did. He both hoped this one did and that he didn’t—that he would mess up soon and they would all sleep easier once it was over.

Only Luke had a sinking feeling that he wouldn’t sleep easier even after the guy was caught.

The chief had speculated about who it might be. He and Sebastian Kane had even reached out for a profile, but so far no one had had any answers. So here he was, far too late at night, turning up on Ivy Dean's doorstep unannounced.

Even as he told himself it was inappropriate to be there, he climbed the front steps and knocked and waited. As he looked down and tried to see if any of the black char remained ground into the cement or if she’d managed to clean it all off, he heard the shuffling sounds on the other side of the door. Looking up, he saw the shadow behind the peephole and thought maybe it wasn't wise of her to be a target. Someone standing on the porch could see she was home, even if she decided not to answer the door.

Had the arsonist actually tried to kill her? And if so, would he be mad that he'd failed?

But when the door opened those thoughts fled. Ivy didn't even say hello, she just stared at him through bloodshot and puffy eyes.

---