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“I’ll take you up on it I could audition for the Walking Dead” Layton turned off the engine, glancing at Erik “You need help?”

“It was a little smoke exhaustion I’ at the sharp cold and the ache in his lungs Toward the end of the fire, he’d slipped in the gook covering the ground floor when he entered a cleared room to set up the pressure fan He’d knocked off histoo ly accepted Layton’s offer to drive hiht-headed and exhausted wasn’t an appropriate rade to his subdivision perched off Jackson Ridge

By the ti sleet, Erik relove box of his truck “Shit”

“What?” Layton asked

“My keys”

Layton blinked in the glow of the porch light shaped like a lantern “You’re kiddin’”

“I have an extra Wait here” Erik jogged around to the garage and lifted the speckled planter bearing the Christht hiift The bottom bore a special compartment for a spare key

Turning, he ducked his head down and ran back to the porch “Got it”

A second later they pushed into the warht over the oven, casting a soft glow over the new furniture he’d picked out only weeks ago The place still had new-car smell Or rather, new-house smell

“Let e into You’ll probably want to take a shower” He glanced over at Layton, hoping his friend took the hint Just about everything in the house was new, including the coverlet and sheets in the spare roo

“Thanks Yeah, I do have to shower before I sleep”

“Me, too,” Erik said, nodding toward the open door at the end of the hall “Guest bath is through there My sister’s not exactly neat, but it should be clean”

“Don’t care if it’s not I need a shower and ten hours of shut-eye Just set the clothes outside the door Night”

“Night,” Erik echoed, trudging toward his bedroo a stea on the light His eyes ached and his head throbbed Smoke inhalation could make a person feel crappy