15 Days Before I Left Him novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Pickup Line

I stood at the dark window with my hand over my mouth.

Roscoe was looking straight up at me.

Behind me, Raylan had found his jeans and was already reaching for his shoes.

"I'll go down," he said.

"No."

"Clara, he followed me here."

"I know how he got here." I let the curtain fall. "He gets to look at a window. That's all he gets tonight."

Raylan watched my face for a long moment, then sat back down on the bed.

Below us, nobody moved for an hour.

Around midnight a truck door slammed, and the engine turned over, and the street was empty.

I went back to school on Thursday.

I had told the principal the day before that I would rather teach than sit in an apartment, and she had not argued.

At three o'clock I walked my third graders out to the pickup gate in two lines, as I had every afternoon for six years.

Roscoe was standing at the fence.

He wore the good wool coat I'd bought him for his birthday, and he held a bunch of yellow roses.

Parents stood in clumps on the sidewalk.

Every one of them turned to look.

"Miss Lehman," said one of my boys, tugging my sleeve. "Who's that man?"

"Somebody I used to know. Go find your mom."

He ran.

I stayed by the gate with my class list in my hand.

"Clara." Roscoe came forward, and his voice cracked. "Please. Five minutes."

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