The Wife They Burned novel · Chapter 30 of 32

Chapter 30: Third Night

"What's in your pocket?" I said.

Abel looked at the cameras across the street.

Then he opened the truck door.

"Get in first."

Sarge was in the back seat with his head out the window, and he licked my ear the whole way to Cos Cob.

Abel didn't say a word in the truck.

He drummed his thumbs on the wheel at every light.

At his house he turned off the engine and sat there.

"You're doing the car door thing," I said.

"What car door thing?"

"Marshall used to sit in his car before he lied to me."

"I'm not lying. I'm terrified. It looks the same from outside."

He dug in his pocket and held out his hand.

It was a key.

A plain brass house key, on a ring with a round orange plastic tag, the kind they give you at a hardware store.

"I'm not asking you to marry me," he said, fast. "I want to be clear. I'm not asking that."

"Okay."

"Yet."

"Okay."

"You've been sleeping on a cot over a parking garage for five months," he said.

"You'll be at the new house all day once it's built. I don't want you there all night too. I want you here."

He looked at the key in his own hand like he wasn't sure who'd put it there.

"Move in with me," he said. "That's all. That's the whole question."

I took the key.

The orange tag was warm from his pocket.

"Yes," I said.

His shoulders dropped, all the tension going out of him.

"That's it? Yes?"

"Did you want me to say it slower?"

"I had a speech," he said. "About closet space."

"Give it to me inside."

We moved me on Saturday.

It took one trip.

Everything I owned had been in a gift shop bag in January, and I'd only bought enough since then to fill four boxes.

The father from Maine carried two of them up the porch steps anyway, to say he'd helped.

The boy rode in the truck's front seat with his tank and gave Abel directions he didn't need.

Joy came on her cane and inspected the kitchen.

"One frying pan," she said. "For two grown people."

"It's a good pan," Abel said.

"It's a crime scene, my love. I've seen your eggs."

The closet speech was true.

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