Over Before She Loved Me novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Last Box

Barrett picked his coat up off the chair.

"I'll let you two talk. Jo, call me if you need anything. Anything at all."

He clapped Dustin on the arm on his way out.

Dustin watched him go down the steps.

The key stayed in Barrett's hand, and Dustin noticed it and did not know why it bothered him.

"Where is the box?" he asked.

"Your study. Second shelf."

He followed her down the hall.

Her steps were slow, and she kept one hand on the wall.

The study was the room where she had never once sat in three years.

She had always stood in the doorway to ask if he wanted tea.

The box held a few things he had missed: a wristwatch, a folder of old drawings, a framed photo of his grandfather.

He picked it up.

Joelle stayed in the doorway.

"Is that everything?"

"Yes."

"Then I won't keep you."

He should have walked past her.

He had practiced it all the way across town.

"One question," he said instead.

"Dustin."

"The night of our anniversary. You came to me."

Her face went still.

"I've thought about it for nine weeks," he said. "You never touched me before that. Not once. Then you did, and in the morning I asked you if it was gratitude, and you said what else would it be."

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