My Husband Hung Up on Me the Night I Gave Birth novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Terms

Six weeks after the gala, the doctor signed my sheet and said I was cleared for everything.

I did not tell Ryan that on the drive home.

I watched him instead.

He had learned which of Bean's cries meant hungry and which meant wet, and he no longer looked at me to ask. He had sent me a text from each place he went, before I could ask, and the text always said where and when he would be back.

He had stood in front of the department's board with no lawyer and taken what they gave him.

Twice I had called him from the next room with no reason, only to see.

Both times his phone had barely rung before he said, "I'm here."

That night Bean went down at eight and slept hard, with her fists above her head.

Ryan washed the bottles in the kitchen of our own house, with his sleeves pushed to the elbows.

I stood in the doorway and watched his forearms.

"She's out," I said.

"Good. I'll take the guest room monitor up."

"No."

He turned with a bottle in his hand.

"The guest room is over," I said. "As of tonight."

The bottle went down on the counter very carefully.

"Erin, you don't have to..."

"I know I don't."

I crossed the kitchen and took the dish towel out of his hand.

"I'm not forgiving you," I said. "Hear that part. The bill isn't paid. I'm just done sleeping alone in my own bed."

"Okay."

"Say it like you mean it."

"I want you," he said, low and rough. "I've wanted you every day of the six weeks. I counted them."

"Good. Count louder."

He kissed me.

It wasn't careful. He had his hands in my hair and his mouth open on mine, and I made a sound I hadn't made in a year.

I pulled him by the shirt all the way up the stairs.

In the bedroom I shoved him down on the edge of the bed and stood between his knees.

"Hands on the blanket," I said.

He put them there. They closed on the quilt, white at the knuckles.

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