One Night to Forever novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Key

Desmond Ryerson knocked on my apartment door at nine o'clock sharp, holding a paper bag of dumplings.

He looked like a man who had never knocked on a door in his life.

"Hazel's on nights," I said, stepping back to let him in.

"I know. I asked my grandmother which nights she works."

"You asked your grandmother?"

"She knows everything," he said. "It's alarming."

Our apartment in Logan Square is two bedrooms, a sagging green couch and one kitchen with a window that doesn't close.

Every wall holds drawings, ink foxes in raincoats, bears in bakeries, a heron in a scarf.

Desmond put the dumplings on the counter and walked slowly around the room, looking at each one.

"These are yours," he said.

"All of them."

"They're good, Cassidy. They're really good."

Nobody had said it in years.

My throat went tight.

"Eat a dumpling," I said, because I had to say something.

"Later."

He turned around, and I knew that look.

It was the look from the dark corridor.

"Come here," he said.

I crossed the kitchen.

He took my face in both hands and kissed me, slow and deep, and every bad week of my life went out of my head.

I slid my hands under his jacket and pushed it off his shoulders.

It hit the floor, and I started on his shirt buttons.

"Sofa," he said, against my mouth.

"It's lumpy."

"I don't care."

He walked me backward until my knees hit the cushions and I sat down hard.

He knelt on the rug between my feet.

Keep reading free with an account. Start One Night to Forever from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.