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He’d left the party when everyone else did—this being after his mom had organized the troops to clean up, leaving Raven’s brand-new house in as good of condition as when they’d arrived.
Better actually.
Because they’d spent a couple of hours while the kids were busy, and the women were destroying the dessert boards to put the rest of Raven’s furniture together.
A big desk and filing cabinet.
A bed for the spare room and two nightstands.
A set of dressers for the master, along with a headboard with wooden slats that made a man think things.
Or—it madehimthink things.
Things he ignored because then he helped his brothers load up their trucks with the cardboard from all that furniture, as well as the pile he’d stacked in the garage earlier in the day.
Then they’d eaten pizza Raven had insisted on ordering before cleaning up and taking off.
Leaning a home behind.
Not a half-burned shell.
Not a furniture warehouse, as his mom had called the back half of the house when she glimpsed the rooms filled with boxes.
But a home.
Raven’shome.
Now he’d gotten in his car, and he didn’t know why, and he’d driven to her house.
A drive by.
Making sure she hadn’t taken off. That she was okay.
Hoping she might glimpse his car creeping by and invite him in.
But the lights were off in the front of the house.
He pulled into the driveway anyway, something gnawing at him, a piece of the same feeling he’d had when he’d driven by her house that night.
The night of the fire.
Flames not visible from the street, nothing seeming out of the ordinary as his gaze had slid by her place. Partly because he’d been tired after having picked up a coworker’s shift. Off his schedule. Exhausted because the department had been slammed. So, he hadn’t noticed anything was wrong until he’d seen Kim and Cole huddled together in the front yard, until he’d looked between the trees and realized the orange glow wasn’t from the lights in the back yard but were from the flames ravaging the inside of Raven’s house.
Then he’d screeched to a halt, had run up to them, had learned Caleb and Raven were—
“Enough,” he whispered, turning off the car, pushing the door wide.
He paused. Listened.
Tried to tell himself that nothing was wrong.
Waited for the twisting in his belly to settle.
It didn’t.
“You’re an idiot,” he muttered, getting out and walking up to the front door. He knocked softly, not wanting to wake her…even as hewantedher to hear.
Stupid, right?
