The Love We Missed novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Deed

I put on pants.

Ciaran pulled on his whites and came down the stairs behind me without being asked.

Tricia was standing in her doorway in a bathrobe with the broom still in her hand.

Through the glass of the front door, I could see Patrick on the porch.

He was sitting on the top step with a green duffel bag between his feet.

His good gray suit was rumpled, and his tie was gone.

I opened the inner door and left the storm door shut and locked between us.

He turned around.

His eyes were red and wet, and he smelled like a bar from three feet away through the glass.

"Aileen," he said. "Thank God."

"It's two in the morning, Patrick."

"I know. I know. I didn't have anywhere." He laughed, and it came out broken. "She changed the locks."

"I saw the van."

"While I was at the closing. While I was sitting in that room signing." He wiped his face with his sleeve. "I got there with Chinese food and my key didn't work. All my stuff's inside. My suits. My watch box."

"Then ask her for it."

"She came out on the porch and told me to get off it. In front of the new neighbors. In front of the twins." He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "She was filming."

Behind me, Tricia made a small, deeply satisfied noise.

"It's her house," Patrick said. "Did you know that? It's in her name. Only hers. Her father did it on purpose. He said he wasn't putting a house in the name of a man who copies his love notes."

I didn't say anything.

"I paid for that ring," he said. "I paid for that apartment. I gave her everything."

"I paid for that ring," I said. "And that apartment."

He looked at me through the glass.

Then he saw Ciaran behind me on the stairs, with his whites half buttoned.

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