Chapter 22: Door's Yours

I opened the front door a hand's width with the chain on.

"Derek, it's six in the morning."

"I know." He lifted the box a few inches. "I couldn't sleep. I wanted you to have it before the weekend."

"You can leave it on the porch."

"Leah, I just want to put it in your hall."

"Leave it on the porch."

He set it down on the mat, slowly.

Then he straightened with the hurt look I had seen him use a hundred times.

His eyes went past my shoulder.

Levi had come up the hall behind me in his jeans, shirtless, with his hair flat on one side.

Derek smiled at him.

"Illingworth," he said pleasantly. "You work fast."

"Go home, Derek," Levi said.

"I'm not here to fight you. I'm honestly glad she has someone."

He looked at me again, and his voice went soft and kind.

"I'm only going to say one thing, Leah, and then I'll go."

"Then say it and go."

"He was waiting for you. Ask yourself how long. A guy doesn't sit outside your sister's building for a week over the truth."

"He sat there because he's a decent person," I said.

"I was decent too." Derek's eyes were bright. "For a year, I was the nicest man you ever met, remember?"

He tilted his head.

"Kind men are patient, Leah. They wait for the right moment."

He nodded to himself and walked back down the steps.

My hand was shaking on the chain.

I hated that he had found the exact place to put the knife.

I had thought it myself in the gray light, lying beside a sleeping man.

Levi said nothing.

He stood in the hall with his arms at his sides and looked at me.