Page 134 of Whirlwind

“We started watching a movie, but then a bunch of my friends, including Wes, came by to tell me about the party. I went outside and hung out with everyone on our front lawn, drinking whatever they’d brought, hanging out with this really nice boy I’d had a crush on. Suddenly, smoke alarms were going off. Someone yelled out “Fire!”

“It was my house on fire. I ran, I ran. We’d left the curtains open and I could see the TV on in the living room, Jessa asleep on the couch. No sign of Five. The front door was locked—my fault because I’d run out of the house and it had an automatic lock. I banged on the living room window, screaming Jessa’s name, but she didn’t wake up. The room was filling up with smoke, the glass was getting hot, but I kept banging on it. So desperate. Panicking.

“Wes and some of the guys heaved these big boulders we had in the front yard through that bay window. I still remember that swoosh of air and smoke, a change in pressure. My eyelashes curling in the heat.

“I dove in, everyone yelling behind me, the room so hot, so filling up with smoke. I got to Jessa.” Violet took in a deep breath. “She was unconscious, her body so heavy. Wes and the guys picked her up.” Her voice trailed off, her troubled gaze fixed on the past. “There was a crash, splintering, booming sounds, more thick black smoke. We got out through the window.”

“And Five?”

She shook her head slowly. “They found what was left of him in the kitchen where the fire started. We lost my brother, our house and practically everything in it. And we all lost a piece of ourselves that night.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Dad was upset with me for partying outside with my friends when I should have been with my brother and sister.”

“You saved your sister. If you’d stayed inside, maybe you would’ve fallen asleep in front of the TV or been knocked out by the smoke or...”

“I always think “what if.” She met my gaze. “What if…” Her eyes were heavy, dark. Pained. “After, everything changed. Mom was devastated. Jessa became spooked by everything. Dad shut down and couldn’t deal with a lot of things.”

“But you could.”

“Yes, I could. Someone had to. And I…I needed to.” Her gaze suddenly wet and vulnerable behind the steel, and my heart squeezed at the ache in her voice. “Gigi and I got my mom to a doctor, got her on medication, regular exercise outside, and slowly, she got better. Jessa lived with my grandparents on the ranch for a while until things…settled down.”

I got the feeling things had never settled down. Even now. So much on one girl’s shoulders. So much. “I’m sorry, Violet. That’s a hell of a lot of tragedy. What’s your sister up to now?”

“Jessa is an interior designer. She’s been working on Dad’s big project too. A couple of months ago, she went to Vienna for a seminar in architectural design, and she’s been traveling through Europe since. Which is terrific, because she’d never expressed an interest in traveling, especially on her own. She’s always stayed in her lane and kept her head down. She’s the good girl, the quiet one.”

“Not you. You stay in the thick of it. You’re loud and you’re right there, guiding the ship the best you can.”

“Beck.”

“I know you,” I breathed.

Her face streaked with red, her eyes round, and my muscles ached. I wanted to touch her badly, desperately. Hold her tight. To comfort her, to comfort myself.

But no, I wouldn’t. That would lead to sex, and sex was easy.

This was the hard stuff that you needed to wade through together.

“So much has happened since Jessa went away,” Violet said. “Since we last messaged each other. I wouldn’t know where to begin first with her.”

“Like whatever happened that night at the Tingle?”

A brittle grin creased her lips. “My dad was there with work associates, including Ladd. We had a confrontation, and he was annoyed that I’d broken up with Ladd. Told me to play nice with him until after the auction.”

“And you spent the night with me.”

She met my gaze. “I did.”

“And the next day, you played nice with Ladd.”

“All pretend. He and I haven’t—”

“This project is really important to you, huh?”

“Very.” A muscle along her jaw flexed. “Building on that piece of land was a childhood dream of Five’s, all of ours.”

“Since Ladd came after you in Nashville and called you his fiancée, I assume he wants to marry you?”

---