When Sky Breaks: Burn & Break Duet Book 2

19. Sky

My meetingwith August didn’t go according to plan. But when does anything in my life ever go the way I want?

“Yo, Sky. Hey. You in there? You better be before I use this hammer. I can’t promise my aim is that good.” Trek nudges me to the present with the heavy hammer in his hand, his expression one of curiosity.

“Sorry,” I grumble, taking the nail from the box and placing it in the pre-drilled hole.

We’re erecting one frame for the haunted house, and I’m already failing at my job. But I can’t get August off my mind. That first official meeting was…well, it left me hollow. I said what I needed to say, but I don’t feel any better about it. If anything, I feel worse. Like speaking it out loud scraped over a barely scabbing wound.

Is this how it will always be whenever I come home?

What if I decide to stay here permanently myself? Can I live with this version of Sky and August, two passing ships, both stranded on a bed of tangled memories?

“Are you okay?” Trek asks, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.

For the beginning of October, it’s still in the upper sixties temperature wise, but for a corporate man, I guess this would be hard work. Try getting through a sixteen-hour shift in the ER, dear sweet brother. On a night shift with a full moon. That was a fun rotation during my clinicals.

“I’m fine.”

“Seriously. I know we aren’t completely on the same page, but I know we’ll get there faster if we actually talk about things when they’re bothering us. Like, for instance, I can’t hammer anything if you keep your hand like that and stare off into space. Talk to me.”

He’s right. And pushy.

Fine.

A deep breath fills my lungs. “I met with August this morning for coffee.”

Trek pauses his movements. “Ah, makes sense then. The grumpy ’tude is pouring off you.” He twirls his finger in the air around my head before lining up the metal tool with the nail pinched between his fingers.

I shove him in the arm, making him miss the nail and almost connect the hammer with his thumb. “Shit. Sorry.”

“Damn, sis. Like, tell me how you really feel, okay? With words, this time.”

Resigned, I sit back on my knees and take off my work gloves. See, I was smart and wore them, while Trek likes to live on the dangerous side and go without, chancing injury on the job.

“We sort of got into it.”

His mouth flops open. “In the middle of the coffee shop? Oh boy, were there a lot of people? You know this will be the top story in the town chatter group.”

I tear a few blades of grass near my knees, stretching them out between my fingertips before tossing them at him. “No dummy, it wasn’t in the middle of the coffee shop. It felt weird and awkward just talking about stupid things, and I couldn’t do it, so I tried to leave. But then he cornered me. I had no choice but to just let it all out, and I mean all out.”

Trek tosses the grass back at me, squinting in the bright sun. “Well, to be fair, we both kinda deserve your wrath. Did you at least make him cry?”

I snatch the hammer from the grass and point to a nail. “Load it up.”

He eyes me warily, as he probably should, and wedges the nail in the open hole. “Is this the point where you take all your anger out on me, and I take it like a champ because it’s the right thing to do?”

In one fell swoop, I bring down the hammer, enjoying the yelp Trek emits as the nail drives successfully into the hole without harming a hair on his pretty boy hands.

“Good god, woman. I think I should keep my mouth shut from now on.”

“Maybe you should. You’re not really helping.” I rifle through the box of nails for a nice, shiny, pointy one. “And then, on top of it, Johnny showed up, too. So that was fun.”

Trek raises a damp brow, urging me to continue the saga.

“I just don’t know what to do next.”

“I’m probably the worst person to ask for advice on this subject. My brain works in numbers, not,” he cringes, “feelings.”

I roll my eyes and pluck up another nail, moving down to the next hole. I will say taking some of my pent-up aggression out on this inanimate object is helping. A little.

“Well, how does one go about resolving things with their ex who caught their house on fire and killed their baby brother? Hmm?”

“Fuck if I know, sis.” He winces for real and runs a hand down his sweaty face, leaving dust tracks across his cheek. “I don’t know how you’re even sitting here talking to me without going all Dexter with that thing.”

He eyes the hammer with clear trepidation, and I taunt him with it before dumping it on the ground next to me.

Right. Fuck if I know as well.

“You don’t have to figure it out today. Let’s finish these two frames and get the hell out of here. I’ll even suffer through a chick flick if you need me to.” He grins and I crack a small smile.

When he’s silly like this, it’s easy to forget the things he did. His friendship is something I desperately need with everything else that’s going on. I’ll welcome any distraction at this point.

Fortunately, he’s right. I don’t have to figure it all out in one day.

However, I’ve never been good at holding grudges or staying mad for very long. This is completely different, of course, but try telling my heart this. It’s a stubborn thing. That stubborn thing goes haywire once I glance up and see the man in question walking across the lawn of the firehouse toward the Chief, a camera slung around his neck.

Trek follows my line of concentration and smirks before going back to work. “You can fight it all you want, but soon, you two will have to get the courage to really sort out all this. What do they call it? Angst? Yeah, the angst between you two could probably be felt the next town over. Sickening, really.”

I drown out what Trek’s saying and watch. August pauses in between all of us working, snapping pictures, messing with some buttons, covering the screen to block out the sun, and taking more pictures. As if he can sense me, he flicks his eyes up and pins me with his gray gaze.

That stupid, stubborn organ in my chest stutters.

Where is the massive fury I should have toward him? It would make it so easy to be in the same vicinity as him. The hate is easy to handle. It’s cut and dry. But this in between space I live in? The middle lane of love and loathing? Positively ruthless.

He holds my attention and slowly lifts his camera. I struggle to keep my breath even. Several clicks later, he lowers it.

August has always been good at capturing life in his photos. I wonder what he’ll see in me. This version of me. The one who’s worn down to the bare bones.

He takes a step in my direction but halts when a figure blocks out the sun in front of me. I lean back and shield my eyes.

“When you said volunteering for the town, this wasn’t exactly what I thought you meant, babe,” Johnny says, stooping to his haunches beside me.

Reluctantly, I huff out a laugh, holding up my work gloves. “So the words building a haunted house didn’t register?”

He helps me stand and brushes his hands on his pants when they come away sweaty from my palms. Such a prissy man.

He quirks his lip. “It’s not code for you bossing everyone else around?”

Trek snorts, and I take a small bit of pleasure in knowing Johnny sees me as more than someone who can only do grunt work.

“Naw, it’s dirty work, but the result is awesome,” I say.

“I hope to be around to see it.”

“Oh, I think your patients will miss you if you hang around this town for too long, don’t you think?” I swallow and let loose a nervous laugh.

Johnny folds his arms and the powder blue dress shirt he’s wearing clings to his biceps as he regards me with a twinkle in his dark eyes. “Trying to kick me out already?” He swivels his head over his shoulder before looking back and tugging me in for a hug. “I got it handled. I can stay as long as I need to. For you and your dad, of course.”

Of course.

Although my body is stuck to Johnny’s side, it’s difficult to ignore August, who’s staring at him with an annoyed expression on his face.

My stomach flips.

Is he jealous?

His phone must buzz because he quickly pulls it from his pocket, releasing the daggers he has pinned to Johnny to answer it as he walks away.

Johnny’s voice rumbles near my ear. “After my meeting at the hospital, I was thinking you might want to join me for dinner tonight. There’s a little place I found?—”

“She can’t,” Trek interrupts as he stands, shoving the hammer into the tool belt he’s wearing. Said he wanted to look the part, and I try not to laugh. “We have plans with our dad, and well, you know, cancer kind of trumps any dates.”

“Trek,” I admonish under my breath and send Johnny an apologetic smile.

He arches a brow and says drily, “You never said your brother was a comedian.”

Trek wipes his sawdust and sweat-covered hands on his pants. “Didn’t know you took women to the beach only to make them swim with sharks.”

Why did I tell him that story?

Johnny laughs. “She loved it. Nothing wrong with living a little while you can, man. My patients taught me that.”

Trek squints, clearly hearing the lie in Johnny’s statement, and I send him a little shake of my head. He sighs and scratches the back of his neck. “Well, you’re no good if you’re dead, Doc.”

Johnny fashions on a smirk. “Touché.”

Wiggling out from under his arm, I turn around and back up toward the building, holding my hands out apologetically. “Hate to stop this fun little exchange between you two, but I’m thirsty, so I’ll be back. Need anything?”

Trek tosses out a request and Johnny shakes his head, putting his hands in the pockets of his slacks. “I gotta run to the hospital. Just wanted to check on you after this morning when you didn’t respond to my text.”

I wince and wave it away. “I’m fine. It was nothing, really. Just part of what I’m dealing with.”

“Didn’t look like nothing to me, Sky.”

I sigh. “I’ll explain everything soon, but not right now, okay?”

The light dims slightly in his eyes, but he inclines his head. “Yep,” he clips before turning and giving Trek a chin nod on his way out.

Before heading to the firehouse for water, I groan and fire at Trek. “Do you get off on busting his balls?”

Trek grins. “Do you?”

“Gross, no. We haven’t even had sex.”

“Okay, lalala, I walked into that one. Two waters, please, and thank you.”

Rolling my eyes and fighting a grin myself, I clomp through the grass toward the firehouse. I gotta admit, watching Trek razz Johnny was funny and helped with my mood.

The smile wipes clean off my face when I see August facing away from me while on the phone in one of the firehouse bays. I know I shouldn’t listen, but I cling to the cool stone of the building and crane my neck and ears.

His laugh carries across the open space, and my stomach clenches. It used to be deep at nineteen, but now it’s deeper and throatier.

He sounds happy with whomever he’s talking to.

Why do I care who’s making him sound so carefree? It’s none of my business who August associates with.

“Lina, you don’t even have to ask me that. Of course, I’ll come over tonight.”

Lina?

My fingers dig into the stone as I keep listening to an obviously private phone call.

“I just have to grab a few things from the store later, and I’ll be over.” He laughs again and speaks with genuine affection in his voice. “You, too. See you soon.”

Quickly, I move to the side of the building, clutching at my chest as it heaves up and down. When August doesn’t appear around the corner, I breathe out a harsh breath and close my eyes. It’s clear he has someone important in his life. Enough to make him laugh like that. I never realized how much I missed hearing it until now.

When the coast is clear, I stalk into the station, grab three waters from the fridge dedicated to us volunteers, and stomp back toward Trek, grateful everyone is too busy to see me having a moment.

This is exactly what I need. I can be free of him and him of me.

Ugly, unsolicited thoughts about someone I don’t even know claw its way out of my chest, but I plaster on a smile despite it.

Wonder if Lina knows him like I do?

Doesn’t matter anymore. I shake away the unhinged emotions threatening to expose me as the hypocrite I am.

Trek takes the waters and eyes me with an intuition I didn’t know he even possessed.

“Let’s get this finished,” I say, spiked with adrenaline.

I’m fine. Just fine.