He Let Her Wear His Shirt, So I Froze the Club's Money novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Your Rule

I came back down the stairs one step at a time.

Boone was in the kitchen with both hands flat on the table and his head down.

He had heard her. The house was old and the floors were thin.

"Where were you," I said, "the night I lost the baby?"

He did not lift his head.

"It was fourteen months ago," I said. "I started bleeding at the grocery store. I drove myself to the hospital. I called you eleven times."

"Hal."

"You didn't pick up. They kept me there till four in the morning, and a nurse I didn't know held my hand because there was nobody else in the room."

His shoulders moved.

"I never asked you where you were," I said. "I moved to the guest room and waited for you to tell me. You never did."

"I was in a meeting."

"A meeting."

"A sit-down." He finally looked up, and his eyes were red. "A club one. I couldn't walk out of it. I had my phone face down on my knee, and I saw it light up eleven times, and I couldn't answer. If I'd stood up in that room, somebody would have been shot."

"Who ordered it?"

"I'll tell you." His voice broke. "I will, but not tonight. I need the unit open first, so you'll believe me. Ask me anything else."

"That's the one thing I'm asking."

"I know." He held my eyes. "I'm breaking your third rule, and I'm telling you I'm breaking it, and I'll take whatever you do about it."

I could have thrown the gun at him.

I could have walked out and let him sleep on the porch.

"Say the rest," I said.

"I should have walked out anyway." He stood. "I knew it when the phone lit up. I stayed because I was afraid of what he'd say to me after, and I've been paying for being afraid ever since. I wasn't there. I'll never get that night back, and neither will you."

He said it plainly and did not ask me to forgive it.

I crossed the kitchen.

I took his face in both my hands.

Under my palms his beard was rough, and his skin was warm, and it was shaking.

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