Page 147 of After the Burn

Finley closed his eyes. “Yes.”

Rory nodded. “Good. My mommy wouldn’t want to be one of those things.”

Something shattered across Finley’s face, but only for a second. Then he pulled Rory into his arms. “You’re right, baby. She wouldn’t.”

The little girl buried her face in his neck as we covered Harper’s body with dirt. When we were finished, Finley and Rory stood over the mound of earth for a long time.

Then he picked up his binder and gear.

“You ready?” Adrian asked as we slipped our backpacks over our shoulders.

He stared at the grave a moment longer, then adjusted the straps of his pack. “Let’s go.”

The sun climbed higher as we left Harper beneath the trees.

It ought to have been raining, with a blackened sky overhead. Thunder should have rumbled so deeply that it shook the earth, acknowledging that something had been lost.

Instead, birds sang.

Water glittered on the leaves.

The world was fucking beautiful.

Finley walked ahead with Rory’s small hand wrapped in his. Wren and Colson followed behind him with Max on their heels.

Lucas’s fingers found mine.

The woman Finley loved was gone, and I had three men in my life whom I loved.

The world was cold and unfair… and as we walked away, none of us looked back.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

ADRIAN

Wren knew where we were going… approximately. That was the problem.

“Past the creek,” she said for the third time.

I looked at the stretch of trees ahead. “What creek?”

“The one with the bad bridge.” She threw her hands up in the was a moron for asking.

“That narrows it down considerably.” I raised an eyebrow.

Wren glanced back at me. “It will when you see it.”

Beck snorted out a laugh.

I was glad we could entertain the asshole.

Taryn smiled at Wren with affection, probably happy that Wren was giving me a headache.

Lucas had his hand at the small of her back again.

Of course he did.

The man had spent months pretending that touching her would violate some kind of moral code, and now apparently couldn’t go thirty seconds without putting a hand on her.