Limited Love novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Why She Stayed

I woke in his bed again, and this time the sun was already on the ceiling.

Chadwick was not beside me.

I found him in the kitchen in his shirtsleeves, standing at the stove with his back to me.

He was cooking eggs.

He was cooking them badly, and he knew it, because he was frowning at the pan.

"There's coffee," he said, without turning.

"Thank you."

"There's also a rule that says no morning talk."

"I wrote that rule."

"I know."

He slid the eggs onto a plate and set it in front of me.

"I'm not breaking it. I'm asking whether it's still in force."

I looked at the eggs.

They were rubbery on one side and raw on the other.

I picked up the fork and ate a bite, and he watched me do it.

"Terrible," I said.

"I know."

"Don't make them again."

"I'm going to make them every morning until they're good."

I put the fork down.

The napkin was in my robe pocket, soft from weeks of being folded and unfolded.

I took it out, flattened it on the table, and drew a line through the second term with the pen from beside the toaster.

"No morning talk," I read. "Struck."

His breath went out of him.

"You want to talk."

"You do," I said. "You've wanted to since you came through the door in Chicago clothes."

He sat down across from me.

For a while he only looked at his hands.

"You didn't take it," he said. "The note."

"You could have walked out of that room owing nothing, and you stood in a flower shop and put it in my pocket."

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