Wrong Girl, Right Alpha novel · Chapter 9 of 48

Chapter 9: What I Watched

Celia came down the bank one careful step at a time, holding her cardigan closed at the throat.

"Dane, up," she said gently. "You'll catch cold."

Dane stood.

He didn't look at me, and he left the gray jacket lying on the stones.

Vanessa took his arm, and he let her.

"Nora, dear," Celia said, "I hope he hasn't been troubling you. He has so much on his mind."

"He's been telling me the truth," I said.

Her smile didn't move.

"Boys his age tell all kinds of things."

She turned and walked up the path with her son between the two women.

At the top, Dane looked back once.

It was only a second, but he looked scared out of his wits.

I picked up the jacket.

I held it to my face with my back to Tilly on the bridge.

I breathed in, and I put it down again very fast.

It smelled of wool and old coffee.

Under that was something so faint I might have invented it.

Cedar, and rain.

I told myself I was wishing it there, and my hands were cold.

Ronan came home after dark.

I heard his boots on the porch, and I met him in the hall before he had his coat off.

"We need to talk," I said.

"All right."

"Not here."

I walked into his study and waited until he followed and closed the door.

The lamp on the desk made a small yellow circle.

I stood on the far side of it with my arms crossed.

"You left me a note this morning," I said. "It said, Eat something. You didn't sign it."

"I'm sorry. I should have stayed."

"Is that what you think I'm angry about?"

He went very still.

"Tell me what you're angry about, Nora."

I'd planned a speech, and it went out of my head.

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