Limited Love novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Hands on White Sheets

Eileen sleeps through the night Lacey posts a photo of his hand on hotel sheets. At dawn Chadwick is at her door a day early.

I cancelled the anniversary table at six, and I ate soup on the couch with the television on.

Chadwick's plane left at seven, with Lacey in the seat beside his.

I didn't text either of them.

At ten I got into bed and opened my feed, because I always did.

The first post was Lacey's.

It was a dim photo of a man's hand on white hotel sheets, fingers curled into the cotton.

There was a dark mole on the inside of the wrist.

The caption said, "Some nights are worth the wait."

I knew that wrist.

In my first life, I got this exact photo after the divorce, sent by someone who wanted me to see it.

I had called Chadwick forty times that night.

He had answered once, to tell me I was interrupting him and his girlfriend.

I looked at the sheets now and waited for my stomach to drop.

Nothing happened.

I felt the way you feel looking at a stranger's holiday pictures.

I put the phone face down, turned off the lamp, and slept better than I had in years.

The phone woke me at ten to one.

It was Chadwick.

"Were you asleep?" His voice was rough, like he had been shouting or hadn't spoken in hours.

"Mm. Yes. Is something wrong?"

"Did you look at your feed tonight?"

I opened my eyes in the dark.

In my first life, I would have been saying no, tell me what happened, I'm getting in the car.

"No," I said. "I was too tired."

"You always scroll before you sleep."

"Not tonight."

The line went quiet for so long I checked the screen to make sure we were still connected.

"Lacey got into my suite tonight," he said at last.

The words came out flat.

Interesting, I thought.

It had never occurred to me that he would call to tell me.

"She must have got the floors mixed up," I said. "Poor thing, she must have been scared. Make sure you're kind to her."

"That's what you want to say?"

"Is there something else you want me to say?"

His breathing changed on the line.

"Eileen."

"Mm."

"I'm asking you something."

"Tell me what you need me to say, and I'll say it," I said, in the voice you use with a child who won't go to bed.

He didn't speak.

I rubbed my eyes.

"Chadwick, I have a nine o'clock with the Foundation board. If there's no emergency, I'm hanging up."

"Eileen, wait..."

I pressed the red button.

Then I turned the phone off and turned over, and I slept until my alarm.

At ten to seven I was in the kitchen in my robe, waiting for the coffee to finish.

Somebody turned a key in the front door.

It opened four inches and stopped against the chain I had put on the night before.

"Eileen."

I went to the door and looked through the gap.

Chadwick stood in the hall in yesterday's suit.

His collar was open and his hair was a mess, and there was a shadow under each eye.

He had one bag with him, and nothing else.

He wasn't supposed to be back until Sunday.

Behind him the hall was empty, and Lacey was nowhere in sight.

"Why is the chain on?" he asked.

"I always put it on when you're away."

"You never have."

"I've started."

He stared at me through the gap with his jaw tight, and I kept my face pleasant.

I took the chain off.

He came in without looking at anything, not the coffee, not the kitchen, only me.

"Sit down," he said. "We need to talk about suite 1081."

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