214 Wills novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Free

Callie's POV

I was awake before Miles was.

I had heard the engine too, and I had lain very still so he would not go down those stairs.

At ten to six the gray car pulled away from the curb without turning its lights on.

I watched it go from the couch, with the blanket up to my chin and Miles's arm heavy across my waist.

Then I lay there and waited for the dread.

It was Saturday.

For four years Saturday had meant one thing, which was that tomorrow was Sunday.

I counted on my fingers anyway, out of habit.

Two hundred and fourteen signatures, and not one more.

The dread did not come.

I felt light, and it frightened me so much that I put my hand flat on Miles's chest to feel it rise.

He woke without opening his eyes.

"You're thinking," he said.

"I'm checking you're real."

"Am I?"

"You were last night."

He smiled into the pillow, and I felt the warmth of it go through me, low and slow.

I had ached all over when I woke, and some of it was from him.

I liked that.

I had been touched for ten years by a man who wanted me to stay small, and then by a man who was afraid to break me.

Last night Miles had stopped being afraid.

I wanted to do it again before breakfast, ribs or no ribs.

My phone buzzed on the floor.

I leaned down, slowly, and picked it up.

One voicemail, from the number that had texted me about the camera.

Miles sat up.

"Don't," he said.

"I want to hear what he sounds like when he's losing."

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