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Gabriel smiled and took a sip of coffee. “No, no, I’m enjoy-ing this.”
Michael ran a hand through his hair. “Not like it matters when I don’t even know what the next few days will hold. You said you think this Calla girl is going to keep setting fires?”
“Yeah. I do.”
The front door opened again, and Hannah whisper-shouted down the hallway. “Gabriel, someone is here to see you.”
Michael raised his eyebrows. “It’s five o’clock in the morning.”
“Don’t look at me.” Gabriel walked down the hallway and out onto the front porch while Hannah walked back inside.
Layne stood there, in black yoga pants and tennis shoes, with a turquoise hoodie and her hair in a ponytail. Her face was flushed, her eyes shining in the porch light, tendrils of hair stuck to her forehead.
“When you said four miles,” she said, “you weren’t freaking kidding.”
“You ran here?” he said. “In the dark?”
“Only the first two miles. Then I was dying.” She shrugged a little. “I walked the rest. I’m sure I’m a mess.”
“No,” he said, feeling a bit dazed at finding her there. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m sorry I just showed up,” she said, looking shy. “I knew you’d be awake, and I need to ask you ”
“Ask me later,” he said. And he kissed her.
CHAPTER 44
Layne’s legs were ready to give out, but she didn’t mind.
Because Gabriel was walking her home.
“I should have driven you,” he said, shaking his head. “This is nuts.”
“This takes longer.”
“Good point,” he said, catching her waist in his hands and kissing her again.
And her back was against a tree and her fingers were tangled in his hair and she was forgetting what she’d even come to talk about in the first place.
But then his fingers slid under the hoodie.
She caught his wrists, and he drew back, his eyes dark in the early morning light.
“Are you still worried about your scars?” he said gently.
“You know I think you’re ”
“Wait.” She blinked up at him in surprise. “You don’t know?”
“I don’t know what?”
She took his hand and slid it under her shirt. “My scars are gone.”
His hand went still against her skin. “How?”
She gave a little laugh. “You tell me. They disappeared after the barn fire.”
His fingers drifted higher, skimming along her rib cage. “All of them?”
