The Scandal Before the Vows novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Roof

The porch roof was flat for six feet, then it sloped to a gutter and a long drop to Margo's hydrangeas.

I sat in the flat part with my knees up and Elliot's shirt pulled over them.

I could see Trenton's roof from there, and the skylight.

The window behind me scraped open.

Elliot came out in his jeans with a blanket over his arm.

He did not come toward me, and he did not sit between me and the edge.

He sat on the shingles a full body-length away and put the blanket on the roof between us.

"Cold?" he said.

"A little."

"Take it."

I took it.

We stayed there for a while.

"I haven't forgiven you," I said.

He turned his head.

"For what?"

"For the hydrangeas."

He didn't move.

"I stepped off that roof on purpose," I said. "I'd made up my mind on the stairs, and I was calm, and I was right. And then I was on my back in the dirt, and I couldn't breathe, and a man put his hands on both sides of my head."

"I remember."

"You said, don't move, I've got you. You said it for forty minutes."

"Until the ambulance."

"I wanted to hate you for it." My voice shook. "I've been so careful to be grateful. You were there, and you were warm, and I wasn't allowed to be done."

I waited for him to apologize.

He didn't.

"Okay," Elliot said.

"Okay?"

"Hate me for it. You can have as long as you need." He looked at the lit skylight, not at me. "I'm not sorry, and I'd do it again tomorrow. You get to be angry anyway."

I stared at his profile.

"That's it?"

"What else would I say?"

"Something stupid. Something about fate."

"I don't believe in fate." His mouth moved at one corner. "I believe I came off a night shift and heard a woman land in the flower bed next door, and I'd have run for you from any house on the street."

I put my forehead on my knees.

When I could talk, I said, "Maybe that's all this is. Maybe I'm only in your bed because you're the one who caught me."

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