Over Before She Loved Me novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Emergency Contact

Dustin did not follow her.

The gray car was gone, and he knew the photograph was already in someone's hands before the hearing.

He stood in the doorway until her car turned the corner, and then he went back into the study and picked up the transfer.

He read his own signature.

He tore the pages in half, and in half again, and put the pieces in the fireplace and struck a match.

Then he drove to Maureen's with nothing in his hands.

Maureen opened the door in her apron and looked him up and down.

"She's in the bedroom with the door shut," she said. "She came in at seven in my best coat and wouldn't tell me why."

"I drew up something for the baby without asking her."

"Ah." Maureen stepped back. "Come peel potatoes."

"I should talk to her."

"Peel potatoes first. A man who apologizes before his hands are busy says the wrong thing."

He peeled potatoes for forty minutes at her little table.

Maureen told him about the winter his own mother had sent a car for her to the hospital and then left her on the curb because she'd arrived four minutes late.

He had not known that.

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't tell you for an apology. I told you so you'd understand what she did to my daughter every Christmas."

"I know it now."

"Good. Go knock."

He knocked.

Joelle opened the bedroom door with her eyes red.

He held up the empty peeler.

"I burned it," he said. "All of it. I should have asked you first, and I'll never decide anything for you again."

"You said that about the question after the anniversary."

"I did."

"And you made a decision for me anyway."

"I did that too." His voice went rough. "I'm so afraid of losing you that I keep trying to fix things before you can say no. That's what I'm trying to stop."

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