Page 2

“No.” When she gave him a look, he was quick to add in, “We’ve only talked a couple times. It would be weird to just do that out of nowhere. We live practically next door to one another. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.”

She stared at him for a moment before nodding. “I guess that’s true. But still—” The piercing wail of a siren cut off her words, and she and Aiden turned to look out the large window in time to see a fire truck race by, throwing rocks up in its wake. They looked at one another before shrugging. “Anyway, don’t forget we have Mrs. P’s car scheduled for a new transmission.”

“Fuck, that’s right.” Aiden straightened up and glanced down at his board. “I can go ahead and get that started and get back to these later. It’s not like they’re going anywhere.”

Vini didn’t disagree and he tossed the paperwork on his makeshift desk before heading into the garage.

Working on cars was a type of therapy for Aiden. As a kid, he often had trouble focusing, his brain going off into different directions even when he tried his hardest to stay focused. He hadn’t been the best student, but working on tasks with his hands had always done wonders at grounding him in the present. When he started working on his uncle’s farm as a teenager, he found he excelled at doing simple maintenance around the grounds. If not for that summer away from the chaos at home, who knows where he might have ended up.

He was head-deep under the hood when Vini calling out to him caught his attention.

“Aiden!”

“What?” he yelled back, not stopping what he was doing. A tap on his hip startled him and when he turned, Vini had a frantic look on her face. “What? What’s going on?”

“It’s your place. That fire truck that went by a while ago was headed to your apartment building. It’s on fire.”

“What?” he asked again, voice going high as her words sank in. Before she could say anything else, he was sprinting out of the garage and into his truck. Aiden could hear Vini calling out from behind him, but he didn’t stop until he was behind the wheel and on his way down the road headed toward town. Air rushed through his open windows and the trees around him blurred, time slowing around him. Vini’s words replayed in his mind and yet they wouldn’t stick. They didn’t make sense. They couldn’t be real.

He turned onto his street and had to slam his truck to a stop to avoid hitting another car parked in the middle of the road. The scent of smoke and ash were already in the air and he could feel an unnatural heat. His vision cleared as he took in the scene before him and he slowly got out of his car as if compelled. There was a crowd gathered just in front of him; faces all turned toward the apartment complex that Aiden had left only hours before.

The complex that was now covered in flames.

Chapter 2

Janae sighed as the last student walked out of her classroom. The morning class had gone well enough, and she was delighted that some of the students already had pretty firm ideas of the art project they wanted to pursue. It was still early in the year, but she could already tell that a couple of the students would be standouts. It didn’t happen every year that there were students who might move on to continue art in a real way, but she felt good about the prospects this year.

She was putting away the paper when she heard a knock and looked up to see Grace standing in the doorway with a wide smile on her face.

“Hey, friend. Was checking to see if you needed help with anything.”

Janae smiled and shook her head. She and Grace had become close since she started working at the school last year. There was a moment, at first, when Janae wondered if there could be something more when they first met, but after seeing the way Grace and Ava had looked at one another when they thought the other wasn’t paying attention, she had firmly placed Grace into the box of friend. It wasn’t too hard to pivot. She was used to doing that and it meant fewer complications. She already had enough of those on her plate anyway.

“I’m doing alright. Aiden helped me carry everything to my car this morning, so it was easy enough getting things here.”

Grace stepped into the classroom and perched on one of the student desks. “Oh, he did, did he?” She raised an eyebrow, her voice and smile teasing. “Is that something you two do often?”

“What are you talking about?”

She wiggled her fingers. “You know. Fraternizing in the hallway.”

Janae giggled and shook her head, amused at the insinuation that Aiden was being anything other than genuinely helpful. They had lived across the hall from one another for almost a year now, and while he always had a smile for her on the off chance they ran into each other when they were coming or going, he had never done or said anything that implied it was more than a friendly coincidence. Still, it was nice to see a warm face every so often, especially one as handsome as Aiden’s.

She would miss it once she moved out of the apartment and into the house she had bought a few months ago. Renovations were still ongoing, and she wouldn’t be able to move in for another eight or nine months at the earliest, but when she thought of the wide boyish smile on Aiden’s face as he eagerly helped her with her boxes, she didn’t feel the least bit rushed.

“You make it sound so lewd,” Janae replied with a shake of her head. She shuffled the papers until they lined up well enough for her to put them back in their folder. “Aiden’s just being nice.”

Grace nodded. “I don’t doubt he was doing something nice. He’s a nice guy. I’m just saying that underneath the niceness there might be . . . more.”

More wasn’t what Janae needed right now, no matter how cute Aiden was. “More isn’t currently on the menu,” she said before straightening and looking at Grace. “Do you want to eat in here or in the lounge?”

Grace shrugged. “I’m fine with eating in here.” She stood up from the desk. “I’ll go grab my bag and be right back.”

Janae nodded and watched Grace walk out. They had half an hour, and she knew Grace would probably try to broach the subject again. Ever since she and Ava had gotten their shit together as a couple, she seemed bound and determined to set Janae up with someone. She could appreciate it even if it wasn’t the best plan, given Janae’s limbo marital status. It might not be her holding things up, but here she was a year later, still waiting for that final signature that would close the last door on a past she would rather not ever revisit.

With a sigh, she walked over to the closet where she kept her small refrigerator. When she opened it, she stared at it in confusion. Didn’t I bring . . . Her thought trailed off when she remembered. She hadn’t grabbed her lunch because she had figured she would have to make a second trip back upstairs. But with Aiden’s help, she only made one trip and had completely forgotten to grab her food. She shut the door with a huff.

“I guess it’s cafeteria food today,” she muttered to herself. She stopped by her desk to grab her badge and was about to walk out the door when Grace came skidding around the corner, looking frantic. Janae nearly jumped back as she held her hands up to keep her and Grace from colliding. “Whoa. Are you okay?”