Run by Janice M. Whiteaker

Author:Janice M. Whiteaker [Whiteaker, Janice M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-04-15T07:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

“Tommy honey, I’m so sorry.” His mother picked her way around the yellow crime tape surrounding what was left of his house. The fire inspector was planning to come by later today, until then, no one was allowed near it.

Not that they could get too close anyway. Even with all the water they used in attempt to douse the flames and the bitter chill in the air, the charred pile of debris continued smoking.

The cold was however, making his leg ache. Made worse by the extra pain he was in from trying to impress Mina this morning. What he wouldn’t give for one of those pills he’d avoided having to take. Too bad they were probably charcoal. He’d have to add a refill to his list of shit to get when he went into town this morning.

“It’s alright. Just gonna be a pain in the ass.”

A huge one. His head was beginning to hurt right along with his leg as he thought of everything he was going to have to do to straighten this out.

Rich slapped him on the back. “I’m here for ya, if there’s anything I can do.” He looked over what was left of the house. “They know what started it?”

He came out to meet them this morning to check out the damage the fire did to the house. Damage ended up not being the right word for what was done to his house. Gut, incinerate, destroy. Those were much more applicable.

“Not yet. Said they might not be able to tell exactly what happened.”

Rich nodded slowly. “You had insurance, right?”

“Yeah. Their man is coming out in the morning. Then I guess they come up with a number for me. There’s still a mortgage, so they have to be in on everything too.” He rubbed his temples with one hand and moved the pharmacy to the top of his mental list.

“Your lady friend going to help you put it back together?” Rich gave him a knowing look.

“How’d you hear about that?”

“Everybody who knows your mother knows about it, so basically everyone knows.”

“Great.”

Rich gave him a confused look. “What’s the big deal? You like her right?”

“Yeah.” Hell yeah he liked her.

Standing here in front of the burned out shell of his house, all he wanted to think about was their time together this morning. Either he was still in shock, or it just didn’t really matter. All that really mattered was Mina was okay.

He shivered, shoving the thought of her being in the house when it happened out of his mind. He couldn’t even let himself consider that as a possibility. Him, yeah. Life would go on for everyone, but Mina had kids who needed her. The thought of her kids being without a mother or a father bothered him. It bothered him a lot.

“Then who cares who knows?”

He did. He didn’t like the pressure that went with everyone knowing your business and he certainly didn’t want Mina to feel it. She had enough on her plate with raising kids alone and running a business.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.