Double Contract Love novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Fourth Rule

I asked about the raincoat at dinner, and he said, "Sunday."

I said, "That's a very small coat for a very big man."

He said, "It's a very small coat."

Then he put a plate of fried eggs and toast in front of me, and I let it go.

He cooked the way he did everything, with big careful hands and no wasted motion.

We ate at the scarred butcher-block table with the back door open and the cicadas going.

"Rules," I said. "Tell me about your rules."

"You read them."

"I read three. There must be a fourth."

He chewed and swallowed.

"Fourth one's mine," he said. "I don't sleep with people I'm lying to."

"We're both lying to a whole church."

"Not to each other."

I put down my fork.

I thought about the second page in my head, and the name at the top of it.

"Then it's a good thing we're not sleeping together," I said.

He raised one eyebrow, the one with the scar.

"Is that what you think happened last night?"

"I think last night was a mistake with excellent timing."

"Lillian."

"I'm joking."

I was not entirely joking, and he knew it.

He took my plate and washed it at the sink with his back to me.

I watched the muscles move under his shirt.

I went to bed in the spare room at ten, under a quilt that smelled like cedar.

I lay awake and listened to him moving around the house, turning off lamps, locking the front door.

I heard him stop in the hall outside my door and stand there for a long moment.

Then his footsteps went away.

At one in the morning I gave up.

I put on the only thing clean, which was his work shirt from the chair, and went to the kitchen for water.

The light over the stove was on.

He was standing at the counter in a pair of gray sweatpants and nothing else, drinking milk straight from the carton.

He turned and saw me in his shirt, and the carton stopped halfway to his mouth.

"You can't sleep either," I said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Double Contract Love from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.