Page 56 of Melting for the Firefighter

The name drags eleven dead years into my kitchen.

White chairs.

Unanswered calls.

An empty church.

I look at Cora.

She is gathering the building plans into a neat stack, unaware that the woman who left me at the altar has returned to Whispering Pines.

Chapter 7

Cora

SomethingiswrongwithLance.

He stands at the kitchen counter with one hand braced against the edge, his untouched coffee cooling beside him.

The tension in his shoulders feels personal, and my mind immediately turns it against me.

Maybe I pushed too hard.

Maybe last night meant more to me than it did to him. Insecurity has always known exactly where to find me.

I set down the ribbon I have been measuring.

“What happened?”

His gaze lifts to mine.

For a second, I think he might pretend nothing is wrong.

Then his jaw tightens.

“Jordan told me something. Vanessa came to the station yesterday. Asked for me.”

My hands go still.

I know who she is without asking.

Whispering Pines remembers the wedding that ended before the bride reached the church. People still lower their voices when they talk about it, as though Lance might hear them from three streets away.

I would have known from his face anyway.

“Do you want to meet with her?”

He turns toward me fully.

“No.”

The answer comes fast and firm.

Relief should follow, but it doesn’t. Eleven years with someone does not disappear just because the ending was cruel. It leaves marks, and I understand those better than most.

“Why is she here?”

“Jordan says she moved back after things ended with Cole.”