Chapter 20: Hands in His Pockets

Levi's POV

The new place was the top half of a narrow house on Linden Street.

It had a porch light that worked and a landlord who wanted a handshake.

I carried the last box up the stairs at five.

Leah was standing in the empty second bedroom with her hands on her lower back.

"That's the baby's," she said. "I haven't decided on a color."

"Don't decide yet. Look at it at noon first."

"Why?"

"The light in here comes from the west. Whatever you pick will look different by three."

She turned to the window and tipped her head.

I looked at the side of her face for longer than I should have.

Carrie had left an hour earlier.

She had said she had a shift, and then she'd winked at me in front of her sister.

I had not known an ER nurse could wink so loudly.

"You've been quiet all day," Leah said, without turning around.

"I've been carrying things."

"You've also been standing three feet away from me every time I walk past."

"I'm in a hallway," I said. "The hallway is narrow."

She smiled at the glass.

Since the night in her sister's spare room, I had kept my hands to myself on purpose.

I'd done it every day since, with her face in my head.