Page 32 of Fallen Flame

I watched her climb the porch steps. She opened the back door and glanced over her shoulder once before slipping inside.

The door closed behind her, and I stood alone beside the fire pit, staring at the empty porch.

I’d given her space, and that space had been enough for her to disappear.

Except she hadn’t disappeared. She had walked outside and sat in a chair.

Lark liked pushing my buttons. She seemed to find every limit I had and tap against it just to see what happened. The more I told her not to do something, the more likely she was to do it while smiling directly at me.

Every time she got close, I noticed too much. Her smile. Her body. The way she looked at me like she already knew there was more beneath the quiet, controlled version I showed everyone.

Space made it easier to remember why she was here.

Protection.

That was the job.

Nothing else.

But space clearly wasn’t working.

From now on, I was keeping a closer eye on her. I wasn’t going to lose track of Lark again, even for five minutes.

And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her get to me.

No matter how many times she called me Ollie.

Chapter Six

Lark

I hummed under my breath as I tightened my ponytail.

It wasn’t any particular song, just a random tune my brain had decided to latch onto while I stood in front of the tiny bathroom mirror, trying to convince my hair to cooperate. A few stubborn strands escaped the elastic the second I let go, framing my face no matter how many times I tucked them behind my ears.

“Good enough.”

I leaned closer to the mirror, inspected myself one last time, and shrugged.

There wasn’t much point in trying to look fancy.

We were going to the Dairy Bar. Again.

Yesterday had been full of cleaning and reminders that the Northbound Reapers had turned my workplace into another one of their crime scenes. We’d made progress, though. We’d cleaned and bleached everything.

Ever’s parents had shown up right at two o’clock, and we were pretty much done. It had been a few months since they had been to the Dairy Bar, so it had been a bit of a reunion for them and Ever.

Once they had realized that the place had survived the supposed crazed cow attack, they had shifted their focus to visiting old friends and heading to the casino. Wrecker had been pretty happy when Oliver and Jude had reported to them that everything was going good at the Dairy Bar.

I stepped out of the bathroom, still humming quietly as I grabbed my flip-flops from beside the bed. They slid onto my feet with familiar ease, and I looked down at myself.

Cutoff jean shorts. Bright red fitted T-shirt. Flip-flops. Not like I was headed anywhere glamorous.

The Dairy Bar had pretty much been my life before all of this happened anyway.

The only difference now was that I didn’t have a choice.

Before, I worked because I loved it; now, working felt like the closest thing to getting my normal life back.