Chapter 23: Only a Name

Nadine's POV

Darius arrived at my mother's door on Sunday with nothing in his hands.

He had even left his jacket in the car.

"You brought nothing," my mother said, looking him up and down. "Good. Come in. Wipe your feet."

She seated him across from me and gave him the biggest plate.

It was pot roast with carrots.

There was a basket of her biscuits beside it.

He ate two helpings and said nothing about the house on Orchard Hill.

"Mrs. Corwin," he said finally. "This is the best meal I have had in nine years."

"Myrna."

"You can have the third biscuit," she said. "You've earned the third biscuit."

I put my hand over my mouth.

I was laughing so hard that I had to look at the ceiling.

After dinner he washed the dishes without being asked, and my mother dried.

I sat at the table and watched the two of them work side by side.

Neither of them had mentioned a Stafford all night.

"Good night, baby," my mother said at the door, and she kissed my cheek.

Then she kissed his, which made him go red to the ears.

My apartment was ten minutes away, and we walked.

The streetlights were on along the river road, and the air smelled of leaves.

He did not take my hand.

I took his, and I felt him look down at it.

"You said not yet," he said.

"I did."

"Is it yet?"

"Ask me upstairs."

I unlocked my door, and I turned on the lamp this time.

I wanted to see him.

He stood in my small living room with his hands at his sides.

He looked big in a room full of my things.

"Sit on the bed," I said.

He sat.

I stood between his knees.

"I have something to tell you first."

"Okay."

"I'm taking my rule back."

His face went still.

"It's finished," I said. "It was good for what it was for. I needed a place where nobody could get in."

"Nadine, you don't have to."

"I know I don't." I put my hand on his jaw. "That's why I'm doing it."

I took a breath.

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