Chapter 19: Wrong Town

Lena's POV

By the thirteenth of March the snow along the driveway had gone gray and the crocuses were up.

I had not answered Brennan's question in his mother's garden.

I had said, "Ask me on the fifteenth," and gone back inside to eat eggs.

He had not asked again. He slept in the big bed beside me every night and kept his hands to himself unless I reached for him.

That was the part I kept noticing.

At ten that night I stood in the kitchen drying a pot, and my phone buzzed on the counter.

It was a text from Brennan's number.

It said: Change of plans. Lawyer moved tomorrow to 9am at the Troy office. Don't say anything to my mother. W.

I read it twice.

Brennan was in the next room. I could hear his shower running.

I went and stood in the bathroom doorway with the phone held out.

"Brennan."

He pushed the glass door open, dripping, and read the screen.

"I didn't send that."

"I know."

"Troy's forty minutes away. The real office is on Main Street here, and the signing is at four." His jaw set. "She wants you in the wrong town."

"She wants me to miss the signing," I said. "If I'm not in the room, the twenty percent goes back to you."

"She thinks I'd keep it."

"She thinks you'd take it from me."

Brennan shut off the water. He wrapped a towel round his hips and picked his own phone off the sink.

It was lit.

He held it up and I read the thread.

The thread was labeled with my name.

It said: I've decided I can't stay. I got what I needed from the letter. Don't call. Regards.

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