Page 9 of Embers in Our Souls
“Well, we’re going to let you go. I need to take a dip in the water. I can feel my skin burning under the sun,” Jerry says as he fans himself with his magazine.
“Before you go, Scarlet, what book were you reading?” I ask.
“Oh, look who’s into dirty books after all,” she says with a satisfied look on her face.
I roll my eyes. “It’s not for me. It’s for my friend. He’s actually in a smutty book club.”
“Sure. I bet you’ll be in that club soon enough.” She winks at me.
She reads off the name and I write it down on a piece of paper. We say our goodbyes and the moment the screen goes blank, the silence is deafening.
I’ve gotten used to the silence throughout the years. It’s something I chose for myself and the longer I’m alone, the more used to it I’ve become. It doesn’t mean my mind doesn’t wander to years ago, when I saw it leaning in a different direction.
There was a time I let myself fantasize a bit; imagining I would come home to something different because I’d let my heart soften. I’m not the hardened person I once was from years ago. My Indy did that.
All the letters she sent me slowly started to chip away at that cold exterior of mine. She helped me find a piece of myself I didn’t know I was capable of offering the world. I started to dream of a lighter life. I started to believe I could have a brighter future; something my parents never let me accept I was worthy of.
The moment my thoughts drift to Indiana, I can’t help but wonder what her life is like today. I know the last connection I had with her, she was in Chicago. She had a whole life ahead of her and I have no doubt she’s flourishing.
I know now I handled my grief over Georgie wrong with Indy, but pushing her away was all I knew at the time. I was hurting, the pain all-consuming. She’s a ray of light and I would have dimmed it.
Fuck, I would have torched it and her entire life had she allowed me to stay near her back then. Thinking back to that time in my life, I wish I could go and do it all differently. But that’s the hard part of our past mistakes—when the fog clears, we see our miscalculations differently.
If there’s one lesson I learned when I started to fall in love with Indiana Ranton, it’s that I could never let her experience the kind of loss I had. Even if I never confessed my true feelings for her before I shattered her world, my pain was worth saving her from the same fate.
CHAPTER 3
Hunt’s Prowlers
SPACEBOOK GROUP
CHAPTER 4
Indiana
“I likethe direction this cover is going, but there’s something missing,” I tell my marketing team. “Since this is the third book of the series, and we know it’s supposed to be seductive if the last book was any indication, then it should allude to such,” I explain as I look at the illustration in front of me. Even though I’m the editor-in-chief I have a bit of an eye for design. Plus, having intimate knowledge of the stories can give me a unique perspective on how the aesthetic can attract the right reader. So, I like to give input on the cover design when I can.
The team is quickly jotting down notes as I look over the design. “This is our most popular series since we opened in Boston and I want to make sure we get this cover right. Maybe add a little more color over here”—I point to a spot to the right—“to make it pop, you know?”
“I’ll send these notes over to the cover designer and I should have a new mockup to you by end-of-day,” one of them says.
“Sounds good. And make sure—” I’m interrupted by a knock on the door when my assistant, Angela, walks in.
“Ms. Ranton, I apologize for interrupting, but Noah’s school just called and there’s an emergency.” Her nervousness is unmistakable in her tone.
I can’t help the way my pulse spikes at her words.
“Did they say what the emergency is?” I can’t help the way my voice hitches. I’m usually calm, but when it comes to Noah, there’s always an extra layer of caution reserved for him.
“He was stung by a bee and he’s having an allergic reaction. That’s all they said. They asked that you head over there right away,” she says and I’m already moving toward the conference room door with my purse in hand.
We discovered Noah is severely allergic to bees on a trip to visit my parents last summer. Since then, I’ve become well versed in allergic reactions, carrying an Epi-Pen everywhere I go.
Moving quickly, Angela is updating me that she will cancel my afternoon and reach out if anything urgent comes up. I hate to admit, I’m barely listening to anything she’s saying. I’m furiously pounding on the elevator button, hoping it will quicken its arrival, knowing it’s making no difference whatsoever.
Once the metal doors open, we jump in. I inform Angela I might need her help grabbing items from my office to drop off at my house if I end up working from home tomorrow, but I’ll keep her updated on Noah’s status when I know more. I shoot a text off to Kalli regarding what happened, in case she hears it through office chatter.
The moment we get to the garage level, Angela keeps up with my fast pace until I reach my car and she bids me goodbye. The school isn’t far from the building, luckily keeping my drive short. I pull up to a parking spot and hurry into the school. When I see the firetruck, my anxiety kicks up a notch, my steps taking on a quickened pace along the concrete.
