Chapter 6: We'll Wait

Rosemary's POV

By nine that night Milo was asleep in the guest wing with Biscuit under his chin and a nightlight Timothy had bought on his way home.

I stood in the hallway in my wedding dress.

It was cream, borrowed from my sister's closet, and it fastened up the back with twenty small buttons.

My sister had done them up that morning and gone home an hour ago.

I could reach four.

I stood outside Timothy's door for a long time.

Then I knocked on the one door he had promised never to cross the hall to.

"Come in."

He sat on the edge of his bed with his tie off and his sleeves rolled to the elbow, holding a file he wasn't reading.

"I can't get out of this dress," I said.

He put the file down.

"Turn around."

I turned.

His fingers found the top button, and I felt each one let go.

He worked slowly. He never touched my skin, only the fabric, and I could hear him breathe behind me.

At the sixth button the dress slid forward off one shoulder, and his knuckle brushed the bare skin between my shoulder blades.

I couldn't speak for a moment.

"That's enough," I said. My voice came out wrong. "I can do the rest."

"You said you couldn't reach."

"I lied."

"Did you."

His hand closed on my wrist.

I hadn't felt him move. I turned around, and he had stood up, and the lamp was behind him, and I had to tilt my head to see his face.

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