Burn Season novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Key

I drove the gravel road to town with my window down, and I let myself in with my own key at dark.

The kitchen light was on.

Walker stood at the stove in a clean shirt, with a pot simmering.

Neither of us knew what to do with our hands.

"You cooked," I said.

"I tried."

"It smells like onions."

"Verna's fault."

I sat at the table where I had eaten three years of breakfasts.

He put a bowl in front of me and sat across.

I didn't touch the spoon.

"I owe you something I didn't say on the mountain," he said. "It isn't a reason, and I'm not asking you to like it."

"Say it."

"When I read your letter, I thought you were already gone. And I thought, if somebody was going to leave, I wanted to do something first."

He looked at his hands.

"I went to that lot because I wanted to be a man you couldn't leave. It's the smallest thing I've ever done. It had nothing to do with Kasey."

The kitchen clock ticked.

"That was the ugly part," he said. "I kept it from you because it was ugly."

I breathed in.

"My turn," I said. "When I saw that reel, part of me was relieved."

His head came up.

"It made the letter easy," I said. "I could be the one who got hurt."

"I could take Alaska without ever having to tell you."

I made myself keep going.

"I stood in that loft with forty people staring, and under the pain a small voice said, now you can go."

"Rory."

"I'm not saying it's even."

"It isn't."

"We're not doing even," I said. "We're doing true."

He got up.

He came around the table and stood in front of my chair, and I tipped my head back to look at him.

"You said no talking about us," he said.

"We're talking."

"Yes."

"Then stop."

I stood up into him, and he kissed me.

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