the moment, she’d evaded the flames. But the fire was coming for her. A crash echoed from within, and she pictured Mady, scared and desperate as she cried for Liza to help her. She didn’t have a second to spare.
Liza peeled off her blood-soaked nightgown and wrapped the material around her face, ducking her head as she entered the inferno.
I’m coming, Mady. Hold on. Just hold on.
CHAPTER ONE
“You should go on in.”
Reed startled where he stood, whipping his head around to see a young girl with her dark hair in a messy braid, wearing blue shorts and a white tank top. She held a red plastic scooter by her side as she gazed at him placidly. His heart rate, which had spiked momentarily at the unexpected voice, steadied at the sight of the child. He turned to her and raised a brow.
“Go on in where?”
She nodded her head in the direction of the farmhouse just a few hundred feet up the road but kept her gaze on him. He glanced backward as though he needed to confirm the farmhouse was in fact what she was referring to, and not something else nearby that he may not have noticed. But no, it was the pretty white house he knew well—at least from the outside—wavering under the summer sun. He turned slowly back to the girl as she dropped her scooter to the dirt road and placed one foot on it, using her other foot to push forward. She wheeled halfway around him, moving between his body and the rear bumper of his car. He turned his head to follow her movement. “I know who you are.”
He smiled, both bemused and confused. Where had this kid come from? “Oh yeah? And how’s that?”
She made her way around him, the tires of her scooter scratching in the rust-colored dirt. She paused in her answer, circling him once more. “Because there are pictures of you all over our house.”
Surprise caused his body to still. “Pictures?” he repeated, the word fading into the hot, still air. Our house.
She came to a stop in front of him and nodded. “You’re Reed. I’ve seen you here before.” She inclined her head toward the farmhouse again. “You should go on in. She’ll be real happy to see you. You shouldn’t be scared she won’t.”
He moved his gaze to the house in the near distance, then looked back at the girl. “You’re Arryn,” he guessed.
Arryn grinned, showing off a gap-toothed smile and a one-sided dimple. “You know me too.”
Reed let out an exhale. “I know of you.”
Arryn’s smile faded and she nodded sagely. “You should get to know me better. I think you’ll like me.”
Reed smiled. “Really? What will I like about you?” he teased.
Arryn looked him straight in the eye. “I’m loyal.” She stepped back on her scooter and did another ring around him. “I’m a force to be reckoned with.” She shot him another toothy grin. “That’s what my dad says.” She stopped, her brow scrunching momentarily. He noticed she had a scrape on one tanned knee, and a scab on the other that was almost healed over. “He says I’m incorrigible, too, and I’m not totally sure what that means, but I’m pretty positive it’s good because his eyes always smile when he says it, even if his face doesn’t.”
Reed held back a smile of his own, nodding as seriously as he could. “I think your dad means you don’t give up easily.”
Arryn’s eyes lit up. “Oh! Is that why I’d make a good lawyer?”
Reed laughed. And he already knew Arryn was right—he’d like her if he knew her better. He already liked the kid after a few minutes with her.
“So what’s the deal? Are you going in or not?” she asked.
Reed’s smile faded. He regarded her for a moment. “When you said, she’d be happy to see me, did you mean—”
“Mom.”
Mom.
Reed cleared his throat, his chest giving a harsh squeeze. Arryn was watching him closely, her eyes squinted very slightly. “I’ve seen you out here a few times before, over the last year, and when I saw you this time, I decided to come talk to you. I thought”—she glanced off behind her toward the house—“well, I thought you might need someone to hold your hand.” She looked down, grinding one sneaker-clad toe into the dirt, momentarily shy. “That’s what sisters are for,” she said, glancing up at him.
Reed swallowed, his throat suddenly tight. Overwhelmed. That’s what sisters are for. This girl, this gap-toothed, skin-kneed