One Night Stand novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: What He Kept

"Your grandmother said this was in a drawer," I said.

Mateo looked at my palm.

He had the grace not to pretend.

"It was," he said. "For four years."

"And now it's in your pocket."

"Since Tuesday."

"Why Tuesday?"

He pulled the jacket straight on my shoulders.

He did up the top button for me.

"Because on Tuesday I had you walked off those steps in front of the whole city," he said.

"And?"

"I went back upstairs and opened the drawer. I couldn't put it down."

I had been ready for many answers.

That was not one of them.

"I thought you'd forgotten me," I said.

"I tried."

"For four years?"

"For three years and eleven months." His mouth twisted. "I'm not good at it."

"You said, on the steps, you didn't know me."

"I know. I'll hate it for the rest of my life." He took a breath. "I thought you were here to sell me.

"I thought if I let it show that you meant something, the price would go up."

"And now?"

"Now I think you came for the reason you said."

I closed my fingers around the lens cap.

"I'm keeping this," I said.

"It's yours."

"I'm keeping it until you've earned the right to hold it."

He nodded.

"That seems fair."

I should have gone back to the house then.

I went to his room instead.

It was after midnight and the house was dark.

Dottie was asleep in the room beside Otto's with the door open.

I stood in his doorway in my nightshirt.

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