Chapter 13: Levi's Kitchen

Levi's POV

I made it to the side gate before Taryn caught my sleeve.

"Levi, please. Not in front of all of them."

"They heard it already."

Her mascara had run down to her jaw, and she was holding her sandals in one hand.

"I was going to tell you," she said.

"Tell me what? There's a lot to pick from."

She looked at the grass.

I had one question, and I had carried it across the whole yard.

"Why did you tell him we were over?"

"Because he goes quiet when I'm with someone," she said. "For weeks. It was easier."

"Easier for him."

"For everybody."

I opened the gate and walked out to my truck.

She followed in her car and parked behind me in our driveway.

The kitchen was just as I had left it Friday.

The note she had written about her weekend away was still pinned under the fruit bowl, in her round, cheerful handwriting.

*Back Monday! Don't wait up xx*

I took it out from under the bowl and read it again.

Then I got my duffel from the hall closet.

"What are you doing?" Taryn said from the doorway.

"Packing."

"Levi, don't. We can talk about this tomorrow."

"We've been talking for two years."

I put in my work jeans, my razor and the three shirts I owned that weren't stained with finish.

Behind me, she started crying again, the loud kind that is meant to be heard.