I Was Never One of Them novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Third Night

By midnight the lodge drive was full of county cars, and Gavin was sitting in the back of one with a blanket around his shoulders.

He had not said another word.

A deputy told Rhys not to leave the county and told me to go home.

Then Constance's driver came across the gravel with a folded notice.

"Mrs. Lockridge regrets that the caretaker's cabin is foundation property," he said, without looking at us.

"You have until morning to remove your belongings."

"She's evicting me," Rhys said.

"Tonight."

"Over my head."

"I only deliver, sir."

Rhys took the paper and put it in his jacket pocket.

"Hazel. Do you have your mother's car?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll follow you."

The inn in town had one room left, over a closed hardware store.

It had a sagging bed and a window on the dark lake.

Rhys set his one duffel bag on the floor.

He stood in the middle of the room as if he didn't know where to put his hands.

"I haven't been in a hotel since I was nineteen."

"Then come here."

He crossed to me.

I stood in front of the mirror over the dresser, still in my black dress and my mother's veil.

"Take it off," I said.

"The dress?"

"The veil. Carefully."

He lifted the pins out of my hair one at a time.

They were the same hands that had carried me over a creek and stitched my palm.

The lace slid down my back.

He folded it over his arm and laid it on the chair.

Then he stood behind me and looked at me in the mirror.

"You were the bravest person in that room tonight," he said.

"I was shaking."

"That's what I mean."

I turned my head, and he kissed me.

It was slow and hungry, and I tasted salt on his mouth and knew some of it was mine.

I reached back, took hold of his belt, and pulled him against me.

"Hazel."

"Don't let go."

"I won't."

His hands slid up my sides, down the zipper of my dress, and the black fabric fell to my feet.

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