Page 65 of Melting for the Firefighter

I move after her.

“What are you waiting for?” Zain calls from behind me.

“Nothing.”

“Then go.”

I close my hand around the key and head for my truck.

“Renner.”

I look back.

“Do it right.”

Tessa lives a few blocks away. Her car is in the driveway when I pull up.

I am out of the truck before the engine stops ticking.

I knock once.

Tessa opens the door and looks me over.

“You have five minutes before I decide you are stupid beyond repair.”

“Fair.”

She steps aside.

Cora stands in the living room with her back to me. Her shoulders are rigid beneath the thin straps of her dress.

“Tessa,” she says.

“I suddenly need lemonade.”

“We have lemonade.”

“I need different lemonade.”

Tessa walks past me and closes the door behind her.

Cora turns.

Her eyes are red.

I did that.

The knowledge sits like a blade between my ribs.

“I loved you before the fire,” I say.

She blinks.

“I was too much of a coward to admit it.”

“Lance.”

“The first time I came into your shop, I could barely speak. It was the anniversary of my mother’s death, and every flower looked wrong.”