Chapter 6: The Terms

I woke up at six with a man's arm across my stomach and a button stuck to my foot.

Dalton was asleep on his front, one hand still wrapped around my hip.

In the gray light his face looked younger.

I lay there and counted the cracks in the ceiling until I was sure I wasn't going to cry.

Then I got up, found a robe, and went to make coffee.

I was standing in the kitchen looking at the floor when I heard the front door.

The floor was a disaster.

Wet jacket in a heap. A trail of buttons. My underwear by the stove.

"Susie?" Teddy called. "I forgot my chem book."

I grabbed the underwear and shoved it in the robe pocket.

Teddy came around the corner with his backpack on one shoulder, saw the buttons, and stopped.

Then Dalton came out of the bedroom in his pants and nothing else.

Nobody moved.

"Good morning," Dalton said.

"Hey," said Teddy.

Teddy looked at the floor, then at me, then at Dalton's bare chest, then back down.

He crouched and picked up a button.

"Is this evidence?" he asked.

"Teddy."

"I'm just saying, the detective in me has questions."

"There's coffee," I said weakly.

Dalton stood very still.

Teddy put the button on the table and straightened up.

"You told me she knew," he said.

His voice was quiet, and I realized he wasn't joking anymore.

"About the tuition," Teddy said. "You sat across from me at lunch and told me my sister knew and was fine with it. She didn't know."

"No."

"So you lied to me."

"Yes," Dalton said.

He didn't flinch from it, and I noticed that.

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