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“Our job, man. Not a big deal,” Ford grunted, his hands planted firmly on his hips as he kept his focus on Owen.
I stared at his profile, willing him to look at me, but it was almost as if he was going out of his way to avoid eye contact.
“You have any idea what started it?”
“You’ll have to wait for the fire inspector’s final report. He’ll be able to tell you for sure what happened, but we did find a cigarette near what looked to be the ignition point.”
My eyes bugged out as Mom gasped, “Acigarette!” Her head whipped around in my direction. “Oh, Hardin. You smoke?”
“No!” I yelped defensively. “I don’t smoke. I’ve never smoked in my life!”
Ford finally looked in my direction, but there was nothing in his gaze. Those blue eyes were completely flat, and the lack of emotion in them sent a shiver down my spine.
“Like I said, the investigator will know more. Just lucky you caught it when you did. We were able to get it out before it spread, but the shed’s a total loss.”
I was fine with that. What Iwasn’tfine with was Ford’s demeanor.
He shot a smile to everyone around me, everyonebutme. “If you guys’ll excuse me, I gotta help load up.”
With that he turned and started toward the back of the house. And something in me snapped.
“I’ll be right back,” I said as I started in his direction.
“Wait, honey,” my mom called out. “Where are you going?”
I looked back over my shoulder but didn’t stop moving. “I have a couple questions. I’ll be right back.”
I picked up the pace to a jog and called Ford’s name as I rounded the side of the house. “Hey, will you stop for a second?”
He let out a huff that sounded a whole lot like frustration before whipping around to face me. “Hardin, I have work to do.”
“Okay, and I’ll let you get to it. I wanted to make sure you were all right.” I stepped up close to him before finally stopping. He smelled of smoke and whatever nasty chemicals were in that shed, but beneath that, I could still smellhim. “You were, I don’t know...offwhen you got here. The look in your eyes.” I shook my head, trying to piece my words together. “It wasn’t right. Something was off.”
He let out a sigh and dropped his head, and I couldn’t help but take the last step between us and reach up to place my palms on his chest. “Hey,” I whispered, “talk to me. Tell me what’s going through your head.”
His ocean eyes came back to me, and what I saw in them stole my breath. He’d gone from a blank mast to overwhelming emotion. Something was eating at him, and all I wanted to do was help.
I lifted a hand and brought it to his cheek, my breath stuttering when he squeezed his eyes closed like he was in pain and leaned deeper into my touch.
It took a few seconds, but he finally seemed to get hold of himself and reached up to wrap his fingers around my wrist. He pulled it away from his face, but didn’t let go, which I chose to take as a good sign.
“We’ll talk later, okay? But I really do need to get back to it.”
I nodded and stepped back, even though all I wanted to do was pull him into a hug until the shadows faded from his eyes.
I stood there as he turned and went to join the rest of his crew with cleanup. I gave myself a few seconds to watch him, my heart aching with everything I felt for him, before turning on my heel and jerking to an abrupt stop.
Asher stood there, arms crossed over her chest, hip cocked out. “Oh, you totally have some explaining to do.”
23
HARDIN
Iblinked my gritty eyes as I stood at the kitchen sink and lifted the coffee mug to my lips, sucking back the steaming caffeinated goodness, and stared out at the charred heap that used to be my shed.
Thanks to some of the items inside, hot spots had kept cropping up, so it had taken a while for the fire department to be sure it was out for good. The adrenaline of the night had taken a long time to wear off, so once all the chaos was finally over and everyone had headed back to their own homes, I hadn’t been able to get back to sleep.
The same couldn’t be said for Hazel though. At some point during my short conversation with Ford, she’d fallen asleep on my father’s shoulder. They put her in the back seat of their car to sleep until I got the all clear to finally take her inside and tuck her back into her own bed. When she woke up earlier, she’d been no worse for the wear, so I’d gotten her ready and taken her to school.
