Page 97 of At First Spark
The ground feels uneven under my feet, the grass damp, the air cooler away from the house.
By the time we reach the barn, there’s nothing. Just the soft rustle of the leaves in the wind.
Holt looks around. Every line alert and focused.
“What was it?” I ask.
He exhales slowly, as if he expected me to follow.
“I don’t know.”
I wrap my arms around myself.
“That didn’t feel like nothing,” I say.
“No,” he agrees. “It didn’t.”
Later, back inside, the power flickers once, then steadies.
Holt’s busy checking the breaker but finds nothing wrong. And when he comes back, there’s something in his expression I haven’t seen before. Concern.
“We had a call earlier,” he says.
My stomach drops.
“What kind?”
“Same side of town as the beach fire.”
The words sink in the pit of my gut.
“And,” he adds, “someone mentioned seeing a car out near the access road last night.”
A pause.
“Same one your guy drives.”
Nolan.
The name hits like a sharp drop beneath my ribs. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“No,” Holt says.
“But it doesn’t mean nothing, either.”
The room feels smaller again. Everything is tightening around something we don’t yet fully understand.
“And your ex,” Hadley’s voice cuts in from the doorway.
We both turn to find her standing across the threshold of Holt’s house with her arms crossed and expression sharp. Both of us were so lost in the moment that we never even heard her vehicle pull up the drive or her unlock the front door.
“She was all over town this week,” she adds.
My stomach drops further.
“Who?” I ask.
Holt’s jaw tightens.
