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Gage’s eyes widened

“Da”

“I know I’m also too scared to hope, but itto Mary, he didn’t start to fall apart until after Mo it It’s hard to wrap my head around”

Gage laughed “He’s a tough old bastard, no question If anyone could pull it off, it’d be Tom”

I turned to hug hi ti for me in Hallies Falls, but in that moment it didn’t matter I had people who cared aboutto lose ood to be true, but it really did explain so much

“I’ve got an idea,” Gage said as I relaxed in his arht had been lifted

“What’s that?”

“Let’s celebrate”

I raised a brow “And how do you want to celebrate?”

“Like this,” he said, pullingthe feel of hi, slow kiss

“I like celebrations,” I whispered “I like them a lot”

• • •

We left Dad and Mary in Coeur d’Alene early the nexta trailer behind us If there’d been a ,

We were ten e fro left but the garage

“Fuck,” I said, holding it out for Gage to see His o look at my place, but I’m scared”

“We’ll be there soon enough,” Gage said “Let him focus on his family”

I nodded, looking out theat the landscape Poor Carrie—she’d be devastated They all got out alive, I reminded myself That’s what reallyout of a war est trees still stood We’d passed three burned-out far at us blankly Then we crested the hill leading down to town, and my mouth dropped

You could see a line where the planes had dropped the red fire retardant That hters took their stand, I realized They’d saved what they could and left the rest to burn Half the toas blackened, buildings no more than skeletons, while the other half looked almost untouched Well, untouched except for ash and the red stuff My place should be right on the line between thelimpse of it, but couldn’t

“Dah down there”

I didn’t answer, clenchingas we reached the outskirts On this side there was hardly any da People I’d knownwhile others worked with grih school—still intact—and then cruised past where the post office used to stand Now the building that’d stood tall for nearly a hundred years was a blackened shell

“Rebuilding will be hard,” Gage said I stared ahead, torn between desperation to see my home and absolute terror that I’d find another blackened ruin As Gage turned down the street I’d grown up on, we passed a burned-out house and then another After that, though, the houses were still standing, and then I saw it

My home

The building was a mess

Most of it was coated in the reddish-orange fire retardant, and the rest was covered in ash I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my life