Page 67 of On Fire

Chapter Nineteen

Nic Silvano

“You shouldn’t be here,” Finn says.

I’ve got one foot on the first step of the back porch Echo Bay Inn, or as it’s functioning right now, the busy hub of Colton Security North. It’s mid-morning and guests have all but scattered. A few tourists walk the beach and gulls cry overhead. It’s a perfect late summer morning.

Claire struggles up from where she’s sitting. Travis is home from Tufts to help out. She’s been told not to work around large animals, so he’s been doing the away calls with a traveling vet. He’s a third-year vet student with a lifetime of helping his father, and then Claire, with the animals.

“That’s a delightful welcome,” Claire says to Finn with a smile. “I’m getting him some coffee.” She’s barefoot, in cutoffs, and her maternity blouse buckles in the breeze. Before she walks by me and pulls open the screen to the kitchen, I get a kiss on the cheek. She disappears inside.

“It’s been four days,” I say.

“Yeah, if you count the day—”

“The day?”

“The day we found you.” He can’t look at me. In truth, I can’t look him in the eye either.

“Well, I’m counting that.”

Finn digs hands in front pockets. He’s dressed in blue jeans and a light blue, short-sleeved T-shirt. It, too, ripples in the wind. His dark curly hair stirs as well.

“I stopped by twice to check on you, but you were sleeping both times. Keller was fucking awkward. I’ve never seen him like that.”

“This is new for him.”

“What’s new?”

“The idea that people know something about him that’s private.”

“It gave me a chance to speak with him about something not work related for once.”

This is a little unnerving. To know the two men I love might be talking to each other about feelings is . . . unsettling.

“What did you talk about?”

“You.” Now he looks at me.

I have nothing to say. “I know you came. I got the Keller report. And my phone. And the food. Thank you.”

“Thank Chloe and Claire.”

The back screen door opens and one by one the Russos appear. Their grapevine is leafy green, and apparently grows fast.

“Thank me for what?” Chloe says. She’s the tallest of the Russo sisters and her long, dark, wavy hair is bundled up in a ponytail. Bryce is right behind her.

I can’t look at him either though.

Jesus.

And there’s Mateus coming around the corner with Laurel. Laurel’s nearly done with college. Her dark wavy hair is loose. She grabs it with one hand.

Fuck.

The indelible memory of Keller’s lips on mine in front of everyone, in that heightened moment of complete vulnerability, is suddenly overwhelming. I want to run, flee the scene, but then there’s Cory who’s holding a drawing and eager to see me. Mateus lifts the boy over the railing on the porch and he solemnly hands me the picture.

It’s of a house and the sun and some grass. And then me, I think, holding hands with him. Two spidery not-quite-stick-figures. I smile at the two together: one is tall and is dressed all in blue—my suit. The second figure is smaller with yellow swirls for his blond curly hair. Cory transfers a Lego from one hand to the other so he can point.