Chapter 38
THIRTY-EIGHT
INDY
The ranch is quiet when we get back, and I worry at first that maybe something’s wrong. Summer’s hand is on my leg, and her silent reassurance calms my nerves. Parking the truck at my parents house, we unload the crates and take them to the Honey Hut.
After a few stolen kisses, we head back to the house hand in hand. This whole day has felt like a dream, one I don’t want to wake up from.
Mama walks out onto the front porch with two glasses of sweet tea. Offering them to us, she sits in her rocking chair and smiles. “Good day?”
“We sold out!” I squeal. I remember when that was our only source of income, and even when we aren’t relying on it, it still makes me happy to contribute with the bees.
“You’re birthday’s comin’ up,” Mama says, making me groan. “Got any ideas what you wanna do?”
My eyes slide to Summer and she smiles, taking a sip of her tea.
“I don’t,” I tell her. After the damage to the barn I’ve been kind of nervous to even think about it.
“Well, you know I’ll make your favorite for dinner, Summer you’re welcome to join us.” Mama’s looking at her now, and there’s something that passes between them that gives me pause. Like they’ve got some sort of secret they aren’t sharing.
“What’s goin’ on here?” I ask, and they both look at me with equally guilty expressions, but neither of them say anything. I decide to let it slide, I’ve got enough things running amok through my brain and I don’t need to add to it.
The ranch is beautiful today, green grass and horses grazing in the fields.When the tea’s all gone, Summer and I head to the camp.
Our ranch is booked solid every Saturday for horse trail rides, so it’s been all hands on deck.
Hopefully we can relieve some of the counselors that have stayed to help.
When we get to the barn, more than half of the horses are gone.
“They must still be on the trails,” I tell Summer, spinning around to look at her.
“Mhmm.” Her hands land on my hips and before I know it, she’s lifting me up onto the closest bale of hay. Her lips crush into mine, and I melt into her.
“I really enjoy kissing you, Honey,” she murmurs against my skin as she moves further down.
“Summer,” I warn, as her fingers move to the waistband of my jeans. “We shouldn’t.”
She looks up and smiles, a devious uptick of her lips, and my tummy turns to butterflies. Instead of working open my jeans, she kisses my stomach, and the lines there that I’ve had since forever.
The press of her lips on each stripe makes my nose burn, and my eyes fill with tears. This isn’t sexual, it’s something entirely different and new. There’s a reverence in the way she’s touching me right now, and it feels a lot like…
Love.
“I need you to know,” she whispers, looking up at me with shimmering eyes.
Worry creeps its way into my heart, and my first thought is, this is it. The moment she tells me she’s not staying. That she doesn’t think this will work out…
Her next inhale’s shaky, and my heart sinks further.
“Indy, I’m in love you. I have been for a while, and even though I’m scared shitless I’m really looking forward to our future.”
Pulling her back up, my hands cup her cheeks and I kiss her hard. “Our future?”
“Our future.”
After another successful day on the farm, Summer and I are cuddled up in our cabin on the couch, with an action movie Summer picked blasting on the TV.
“I ran into Sheriff Hartley at the market,” she says when the credits start rolling. Leaning up so I can look at her, I wait for her to continue. “She asked to talk to me.”
“About the case?” I ask, watching her face for any sort of reaction.
“I don’t know, she said there wasn’t anything new, but I’m hoping maybe…” she trails off as her phone pings. Reaching for it on the coffee table, she picks it up and when her eyes glance at the screen she pales. “I think we’ll be talking to her sooner rather than later.”
Offering me her phone, I see the new text thread.
UNKNOWN: PLAYING HOUSE?
WATCH ME BURN DOWN YOUR HAPPILY EVER AFTER LIKE YOU DID VAL’S
There’s a sound outside, like a woosh and soon, there’s bright orange licking at the door.
I look toward Summer but she’s frozen, staring at the door as it burns, paralyzed by fear.
“Oh my God!” I whisper.
I need to do something.
My brain jumps into action, grabbing blankets from the couch and wrapping us in them. Summer’s arm wraps around my shoulders and she tries the doorknob with her free hand, pulling away with a hiss of breath.
“Okay, new plan. Back up, Honey,” she says, before lifting her powerful leg and kicking the door open. Bright hot flames lick the porch, already eating away at the floor boards. Crackles and pops take over my thoughts as I watch the fire spread.
“Get out!” Someone from outside shouts, pulling me out of my stupor. Summer and I leap out of the cabin together, falling to the grass, and I hear the splash and hiss of water hitting flames. When I turn the fire blazes, eating away at the place I put so much love into.
Scrambling to get up and grabbing a bucket from the buggy we’d driven home–thank God horses use so many–I start hoofing it between the lake and my cabin. Summer must have the same idea, because she’s right behind me.
We form a chain, Summer, the deputies, and myself, filling buckets and throwing the water at the fire, but it’s no use. Whatever the culprit used as an accelerant is eating away at my home.
The roof of my cabin turns yellow and orange as the fire spreads, and all the hope in my body won’t be enough to get it to stop.
Soon there’s a new sound, a pop that puts me off balance when I realize what it is.
Oh God…
Dropping my bucket and pointing to the woods behind my home, I shout, “It’s spreading!”
Summer and I focus on the cabin while the two deputies lug water to the trees, and soon lights and a horn signal the fire department has arrived, and the firefighters jump straight into fighting the flames.
Hitting my knees, I watch as the men in thick yellow suits roll out their hoses and spray the base of the tree line with water.
Shouts come from everywhere, but something catches my eyes. Clearing the moisture there, I stand on wobbly legs and take slow determined steps toward the blackened grass, where I find a scorched trail of earth leading up to the cabin.
I follow it.
No one notices when I slip away, or if they do, I don’t care.
I have to see this through. I have to know where this leads, and if it means what I think it does.
At the end of the trail, where the woods start near the lake’s edge, I look down at the proof of someone trying to burn down my home and I fall to my knees and weep.
Summer’s screaming my name as my tears flow over my cheeks. She runs to me then, and wraps me up in her arms as sirens wail in the distance.
“Thank God you’re okay. The deputies at your cabin said they saw a figure run into the woods before the fire was set, and then I saw you walk off in that direction. I thought they’d–” she’s running her hand over my hair clutching me to her chest.
I can’t imagine the memories this must drudge up for her, the awfulness of watching one home burn down, and now another. Just witnessing this has my insides twisted and knotting. I need to get myself together, for her.
“I’m sorry,” I say, wiping my tears and standing before reaching to pull Summer to her feet. “Let’s go see if we can keep helping, yeah?” She nods, and we walk the short distance back to the cabin.
Distantly I know if I don’t call my parents they’ll show up asking questions, and I’m not sure I’m anywhere near ready for that.
Police cars tear into my little driveway, and Sheriff Hartley rushes over to where we’re standing while firemen hose down my house.
Half of it crumbling down, shingles and wood blackened and ruined.
“Are y’all okay?” She asks, looking us over and then demanding, “Tell me what happened.”