Page 87 of After the Burn

Every day we spent here was another day they were out there trying to survive without us.

“This is it.” Adrian’s voice broke me out of my thoughts.

When I looked up, the tire swing caught my eye first. It hung beneath the broad canopy of a massive live oak, turning gently in the breeze as if still waiting for the little girl who’d once spent her summers soaring beneath those branches.

Beyond it sat a modest Craftsman bungalow with a broad front porch wrapped around sturdy stone columns and worn wooden steps, polished smooth by decades of footsteps. The faded green paint had been touched up wherever the weather had taken its toll.

Despite the patched roof, repaired screens, and rain barrels tucked neatly beside the house, it still carried the quiet dignity of a place once filled with birthday parties, scraped knees, and ordinary Tuesdays.

It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t new. But somehow, standing beneath that old oak, it felt like hope wrapped in a warm hug.

Beck turned and grabbed my face, pulling me in for a hard kiss. “Should I carry you over the threshold?”

Lucas made a gagging noise. “Give me the fucking keys, Adrian. I can’t stand watching you two make fools of yourselves.”

Adrian ignored him, his eyes locked on Beck.

I looked between them, wondering if this was the moment everything went to shit, but Adrian seemed to shake it off, tossing the keys to Lucas and motioning for me to check out the house.

Lucas unlocked the door. "Home, fake home. Three men, one dog, and a bitch in a pear tree. Sounds like my version of hell.”

“Why don’t you try to be fucking civil?” Beck growled at him as we both entered.

“Because I don’t fucking want to,” Lucas said as he wandered deeper into the house. “I agreed to this farce, but I never said I’d make it pleasant.”

Max squeezed between Beck’s legs and barreled into the house. Just a second after, the sound of his nails sliding on the polished wood echoed as he let out three rapid barks.

“What the fuck now?” Beck muttered.

Adrian shoved me behind them. “It could be infected.”

“Please.” I rolled my eyes at the two of them treating me like I was precious. “That’s his all-clear bark.”

I pushed them aside just in time to watch Max dart from room to room as if he’d found hidden treasure. “Hier!”

My smart dog came immediately.

“Bleib.” I snapped my fingers, and Max sat beside my boot, though his tail continued thumping hopefully against the floor.

Adrian and Beck immediately began checking every window while I could hear Lucas opening and shutting doors somewhere in the back of the house.

“Three bedrooms,” he called. “I suppose y’all will share?” Lucas called out sarcastically.

I saw Beck grimace, then glance at Adrian. “I’m not there yet.”

Adrian raised an eyebrow. “Neither am I.” He stepped closer to me and whispered in my ear. “The first time I fuck you, I want your full attention.” He turned to walk away. “Then we’ll see…”

What?

I wandered toward the kitchen in a daze, trying to imagine what that would even look like.

Somebody had left behind pale blue curtains that danced gently in the breeze coming through the open window.

A chipped ceramic cookie jar still sat on the counter.

The place didn’t feel abandoned.

It felt…