I Heard Dad's Friends Through the Wall, Now They Hear Me novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: First Night in the Cottage
Emmett stitched Boone's lip at my new kitchen table, under a bare bulb.
Boone said it didn't need stitches.
Emmett said that was what he told cows.
When it was done, Boone stood up and put on his jacket.
"Tonight's yours," he said. "Your father needs a day to hate me in peace. I'll be at my place."
"Boone."
"I'll come when you call." He held two knuckles an inch from my cheek and waited. "Out loud."
"Yes," I said.
He touched my cheek once, and left.
He left.
I heard his truck go down Twenty-Sixth, very slowly.
I didn't.
Dex and Emmett stayed to unpack.
By ten o'clock the bed was made, with the frame Boone had bolted together before the fight.
The lamp was on, the boxes were stacked in the corner, and the pear tree scraped the window.
I stood at the foot of the bed and could not stop shaking.
"Diana?" Dex said.
"I keep thinking he'll come back."
"Your dad?"
"I keep thinking I'm still the girl in the back bedroom." I laughed, and it came out wrong. "The one you talk about through a wall, because you'd never say it to her face."
"Diana."
"I keep waiting for the part where I'm Gil's little girl again, and you put your hands in your pockets."
Dex looked at Emmett.
Emmett came and stood in front of me.
He raised his hands and stopped them an inch from my face.
"Put your hands on me," I said. "Out loud."
He put his hands on either side of my face, slowly, and looked right at me in the lamp light.
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