Lauren jerked away, shocked that he would blame her for the fire. “No, I woke up and it was… No, I didn’t do this.” She had a hard time defending herself. The act was indefensible, but it was not one she had committed. Who would do such a horrible thing, and least of all to a friend?
“You weren’t supposed to go in there,” he said, staring straight ahead at the charred remains of his once secret place.
“Shane, are you serious right now? It was on fire. If I didn’t do something, it could’ve spread to the house or the kennels. Is your secret really more important than our lives? The dogs’ lives?”
He shook his head for longer than was natural of such a gesture, saying nothing, staring straight ahead but seeing nothing. At last he murmured, “You started the fire. There was no one else. No one else could have, and you’ve always been nosing around my business. You couldn’t pick the lock, so you set it on fire. Maybe you were frustrated with me. Maybe it was the only way you could get inside, but you did it. You.”
Lauren felt as if she’d been punched in the face, and honestly, she wished he would hit her. It would hurt less, and it would make what needed to happen next that much easier. “Listen to yourself! That’s crazy!” she cried. “I would never do this. Shane, I’m your friend, remember?”
He laughed bitterly. “Some friend you are. I should’ve sent you back when I had the chance, but no. I thought it could work out. I thought I should give you a chance, and now the only part I had left of her is gone. It’s gone, Lauren! You took it, you took her away from me!”
She stepped backward, her chest heaving as she struggled under the weight of his accusation. “No, no, it’s not like that. I don’t even know who she is. I would never hurt you, Shane. Never.” How silly she’d been, assuming he could return her feelings. He could never love her because he still carried a torch for some ghost. That was obvious now, and if she’d done a better job reading the clues, it would have been obvious sooner, too.
“Stop talking to me like you understand.” His voice grew distant as he crept into the damaged shed and examined what little remained. “You could never understand,” he said as she joined him.
“Maybe I could if you opened up to me. I want to help.” She placed a placating hand on his arm, but he ripped himself away from her touch.
“What a way you have of showing it,” Shane sneered.
“I lost someone important to me, too. My father, he—“
“This isn’t the same,” Shane snapped. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“Then tell me,” she said gently, observing the shed’s contents more closely now. Everything in the front was covered in soot and ash, but toward the back, a few bins remained unscathed. They held what looked like bolts of fabric—clothes maybe, most of them pink. She couldn’t figure out any of the other items without stooping down to take a closer look, and she knew Shane wouldn’t want her to do that. She stayed at his side, waiting for him to take back the hurtful accusation, to explain.
Something. Anything.
His voice sounded hoarse now as if it were single-handedly holding back a dam of tears. “You want me to tell you? Is that what you want?”
She looked over to him, but he continued to stare blankly ahead. She wanted to wrap him in her arms, to take away all the pain, but only if he would let her. He needed to let her help him. They could move past their losses together. “Yes, I’m here for you. I care about you, Shane. I want to help.”
“Nobody asked you to do that.” His eyes scanned the shed again, and when they landed on her, he grimaced and paced back out into the open yard.
Lauren followed him a step behind. They couldn’t just act like this hadn’t happened. He couldn’t continue to disguise his hurt, to let it fester in his heart.
“I told you to stay away,” he grumbled. “Play with fire and you’ll get burned. Isn’t that how the saying goes? But you couldn’t stop there. You had to burn me, too. It’s all ruined.” He choked back a sob and, rather than continuing forward, fell to his knees in the snow, screaming in pain as he made contact with the ground.
“Is that what you really want?” she asked as she retrieved the crutches and tried to help him up.
He bullishly refused her, and it felt as if he were rejecting her for the first time all over again. As if they hadn’t shared a single special moment, a single happy time. “That’s what I want.”
“Then I’ll go, but please let me help you back inside first. Please let me make sure the dogs are okay.”
“You’ll go. And never come back.” His words could have been a question or a command, Lauren didn’t know. All she knew is how much this hurt.
Now it was she who cried into the night air. “I promise,” she said, turning her back to Shane Ramsey and walking away into the unknown.