Page 141 of After the Burn

Sunlight woke me.

For several seconds, I didn’t understand where I was.

Then I remembered the storm.

The barn.

Harper.

I smiled, Lucas… then I opened my eyes.

The cracked windshield had turned the morning into fractured pieces of blue sky and gold light. Rainwater clung to the glass in tiny beads, each one catching the sun.

The world outside looked clean. I wished with everything in me that it wasn’t complete bullshit; nothing was clean anymore.

As I shifted, I realized Lucas still held me close. His arm remained wrapped around my waist, gripping firmly even as he slept.

For a single, still moment, I stayed motionless, longing for the kind of life where I could stay in bed all day, surrounded by soft morning light.

I sighed, savoring Lucas’s warmth. That, in itself, felt stranger than anything else. I’d spent months fighting him, arguing with him, both of us trying to hurt each other, and here I was, snuggled up to him in a derelict truck behind a gutted farmhouse. Sometime overnight, Lucas Rowen became mine… or perhaps I became his?

Either way, we belonged to each other now, and I wasn’t upset about it. In fact, weirdly enough, I finally felt complete.

I heard his breathing change and lifted my head to see his intense blue eyes staring into mine. “Good morning, Menace.”

“Good morning.” I suddenly felt shy and looked down.

Lucas’s mouth curved. “Don’t get shy on my now. Mr. Rowen might have to keep you after class.”

I swatted his chest, “Shut your mouth, or Mr. Rowen might never get lucky again.”

He laughed, the joy on his face not something I was used to seeing. “That would be a shame.”

“Yes, it would.” I agreed.

“How do you feel?” He leaned toward me and I met him in a kiss.

“I feel like my old self… well the self I became after the meteor shower.” I amended.

“You sure?” He asked, both of us sitting up.

I reached down and grabbed GG from the floorboard, opened the truck door, stepped out into the wet grass, and gave the bat a hard experimental swing. My muscles answered exactly the way they were supposed to. “Yep, I’m sure.”

Lucas climbed out behind me. “Looks like the rotters moved on.”

“Seems like it.”

Sunlight filtered through the wet trees. Steam curled from the grass where the warmth touched it. Somewhere inside the farmhouse's blackened chimney, a bird chirped as if the apocalypse had never happened.

Lucas pulled me into his arms for another kiss. “We need to find our people.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, but a small part of me was scared for my time with Lucas to end. I didn’t want things to go back to the way they’d been.

“What’s wrong, Taryn?” Lucas frowned down at me.

I shrugged. Not wanting to admit what I’d been thinking about.

“None of that.” He tapped the end of my nose. “Tell me.”