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“Where are you going to sleep?”
“You’re funny.”
Silence filled the line for a minute, as she tried to figure out how to respond to that. “I’ve been worried about you.”
He didn’t say anything for so long that she had to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. He finally sighed. “We’re fine.” He paused. “Your dad let me get some clothes out of the house. The truck survived.”
His voice sounded so bleak. She didn’t have much experience with this side of firefighting, and all the intimacy of sitting in the back of the ambulance was gone now that their only connection was based on a cell signal. She wished she knew what to say. “Have you talked to the insurance company yet?”
“I just hung up. They’re having a case manager call me back later.”
She sat up in bed. “You sound . . . you don’t sound good. Do you want me to come over?”
“No. No, Hannah. I want—look, forget it. I felt bad for not texting back.” A long sigh, full of pain and so much emotion that she wanted to drive over there right now and wrap him up in her arms. Then his voice steadied. “We’re okay. We’ll be okay. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Michael, I just watched your neighborhood burn down. I am worried about you.”
That low not-quite laugh. “Don’t remind me.” A pause. An almost-shaky breath. “Please.”
“Why don’t I come over? I can bring coffee—”
“I said no, okay?”
His tone shut her up quick. Hannah blinked.
He made a shuffling sound with the phone, and his voice sounded distant for a moment. “I’m sorry. I’m—it’s been a bad night. I don’t even know what I’m saying.”
oney was on Chris, but the footsteps on the concrete were light and unfamiliar. Michael turned his head to find himself face-to-face with a travel mug, steam escaping through the hole in the lid.
“Hot drink?” said Adam, his voice quiet.
“Sure.” Michael cleared his throat and forced his frozen fingers to wrap around the mug. He barely knew Adam, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted this distraction. He turned his gaze back to the horizon. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
He expected Adam to retreat into his apartment, but a blanket dropped over his shoulders, a weight of rich brown fabric that felt velvet soft to the touch.
Michael froze, unsure how to react.
Adam gave his shoulder a quick squeeze before moving away. “You were making me cold just looking at you.” He sat cross-legged against the beam at the corner of the patio. His movements were unhurried and graceful, so different from Michael’s brothers. He offered half a smile. “Nick ignores my chairs, too.”
Michael glanced over his shoulder at the patio chairs. Saying he felt better with his feet in the grass felt like admitting vulnerability, so he kept his mouth shut.
Silence swirled between them, and though it wasn’t strained, Michael wondered if he was being rude. “Thanks for letting us crash here for a little while.”
“Stay as long as you need to.”
Michael snorted. “You say that now.”
“A houseful of Merricks isn’t exactly a problem.”
Michael studied him, trying to determine whether he was teasing, and what the right reaction should be.
Adam’s expression went serious. “You’d do the same for me.”
Michael looked back at the drainage pond. “You don’t know that.”
“I know Nick. So yes, I do know that.”
