Backstabbing Friend's Self-Inflicted Shame novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: What He Took

Rafe's POV

I woke up alone in a bed that smelled like her hair, and the first thing I felt was fear.

It was not fear of Tate.

For two years I had been afraid I would never wake up anywhere I wanted to be.

Then I heard Greer's voice downstairs, very level, saying a name.

I dressed in the dark.

I had told her I would not go after him alone.

I told myself that standing at the top of the stairs counted.

The study door at the back of the hall was open and the light was on.

Greer stood in front of it in a grey robe with her arms folded and her bare feet planted.

Tate sat behind his own desk in yesterday's suit with a black binder open in front of him.

He had not slept either, and it did not show on him anywhere.

"Honey," he said. "Good morning. You're up early."

"You locked up, and then you let yourself in."

"I live here."

"You said you were staying in town."

"I changed my mind." He turned a page without looking at it. "I wanted to see what you'd been doing in my study."

My throat was tight.

I came down the last few stairs and stood behind her left shoulder, where he could see me.

Tate looked up.

He took his time about it.

I had once watched this man fix a rotted board on my dock for an entire afternoon without losing his temper, and I had thought: here is somebody who can be trusted to finish things.

"Rafe," he said warmly. "Look at you."

I had imagined this moment about four hundred times.

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