Chapter 12: Wife Calling

I woke at dawn to the sound of a phone buzzing against floorboards.

The lake house was bright and very cold.

Daniel was asleep on his side with his arm over my waist and his face against my shoulder.

His breath was warm on my skin.

I lay still and let myself have one full minute of it.

I touched the little white scar through his eyebrow with one finger.

He frowned in his sleep and pulled me closer, and I let him.

I had slept for the first time in a week, and I was not sorry.

I thought: this is what it feels like when somebody is on your side.

Then the phone buzzed again.

It had been going on and off all night.

If I did not shut it off, it would wake him, and I did not want him to wake to the noise.

I slid out from under his arm, wrapped the quilt around my shoulders and picked his jeans up off the floor.

The phone was in the pocket, and it lit as soon as I touched it.

Twenty-six missed calls.

The newest one was ringing on the screen.

There was a photograph with it, and a name.

The photograph was of a woman in a long white dress, laughing, with her head tipped back against a man's shoulder.