He Accused Me of Stealing, But I Heard the Truth novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: The Only Reason She's Alive
I stood in Birdie's doorway with her coat half on and her small, serious face turned up to mine.
Laurence said nothing.
His hand stayed on the frame, and his face stayed empty.
His mind did not stay empty.
*Don't ask her to stay. Don't ask. She said no touching and she said no orders. Don't make it an order.*
*But if she goes to Maureen's, a woman in a cream coat gets to walk in that door again.*
"You're thinking it loud," I said. "Say it out loud."
He flinched.
"Stay," he said. "Please. For her treatment. The infusions are here and the immunologist is here, and I would like..."
He stopped.
"Say that part too."
"I would like you here," Laurence said. "Because it is easier to breathe when you are."
Birdie looked from him to me.
"Can I keep the slippers on?" she asked.
I took her coat off.
"We stay for the treatment," I said. "On my terms, and I'm adding one."
"Name it."
"You heard every thought I had in that lobby, and I heard yours. I will not be guessing at you. If you think something about me, you say it. If I think something about you, I say it. Out loud, so nobody builds a case in their head."
His eyebrows rose.
"Everything?"
"Everything that's about the other one."
*Her collarbone, in my shirt, last night.*
I raised one finger.
"That's a thought about me."
His ears went red.
"Your collarbone," he said, stiffly. "In my shirt. Last night, in the kitchen."
"Thank you."
"Is it your turn?"
*His forearms, with the sleeves pushed up, on the stove.*
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