No Shelter Left novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Rain

It was raining by the time they left the depot.

Jude held the door of his car open for her, and she got in without arguing.

The wipers beat against the windshield.

For the first ten minutes neither of them spoke.

The car smelled like leather and coffee, and the heater was on too high.

Aisling watched the city blur past in red and white streaks.

She watched his hands on the wheel.

His knuckles were pale, and the road was only wet.

He was cold, she told herself. Or angry. Or driving carefully.

It had nothing to do with her.

"You said you'd tell me something," he said, at a red light. "If I decided you wrote them."

"I never said I'd tell you anything."

"You said, 'If you decide, I'll tell you.' Those were your words."

She looked at him.

His eyes stayed on the light.

"I decided in the alley," he said. "I only needed to hear it from someone besides you."

The light turned green.

"Why did you stay two years?" he asked.

She thought about lying.

She thought about the nights in her bedroom with the pillow over the guitar.

"Because they said family," she said finally. "Nobody had ever said it to me and meant it. I thought that was what it cost."

"Cost," Jude said.

"My mother said family meant giving. I thought that was the price of being let in."

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