Burn Season novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Lot at Dry Creek

Walker's POV

I got to the Dry Creek lot at three in the afternoon with a box of string lights, and Rory was already there.

She stood on the gravel behind the tavern, in the exact place the clip had been shot.

The dumpster was still there, and the tavern's back light, and the faded stripe where my truck had been parked.

She had her braid over one shoulder and her hands in her jacket pockets.

I stopped at the edge of the lot.

"You're early," I said.

"I wanted to see it first."

"We can still go somewhere else."

"No."

She walked over to my truck, which I had backed into the same place without thinking, and she put her back against the door.

"Come here," she said.

My legs didn't want to move.

I had imagined this lot every night for three weeks.

I had never once imagined her in it.

I crossed the gravel and stopped in front of her.

"Tell me what you remember," she said.

"Rory."

"I'm asking."

My voice came out thin.

"I remember the cold."

I drew a breath.

"I remember thinking it was too late to say anything to you."

"I remember her hand in my hair, and wanting it to be yours."

I stopped.

"I remember afterward. I sat in this truck until four in the morning."

She nodded.

Then she took my face in her hands.

She kissed me there, against the door of my truck, in the middle of the afternoon.

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