Chapter 16: What I Won't Take Back

Kip's POV

I spent two nights in my car outside Bev's Diner.

The first night Bev knocked on my window at midnight and handed me a coffee without a word.

The second night she handed me a slice of cherry pie and a fork.

"She's upstairs," Bev said. "She's not asking for you.

"But she looked out the window twice, so that's something."

At noon on Saturday the back door of the diner opened.

Hallie came down the steps with her coat over her arm.

I got out of the car.

She stopped ten feet away.

Her face was gray under the freckles, and she held her phone against her chest with both hands.

"I'm going to say this once," I said. "You can walk away after."

"Say it."

"I knew on the floor, and I let you say her name, and I would do it again.

"I'd do it again because you were bleeding on marble in front of two hundred strangers.

"I wasn't going to be the one to take her from you there.

"That's what I won't say sorry for."

Her jaw moved.

"But I was wrong not to tell you afterward.

"I had two weeks of chances.

"I watched you count the minutes and I kept my mouth shut.

"I was afraid of the look you've got on your face right now.

"That's mine, and I'm sorry for it."

She didn't speak for a while.

A truck went by on the road and she waited for it.

"I recorded Whitney yesterday," she said. "Do you want to hear it?"

I'd been braced for anything but that.

"In the car," I said. "Out of the wind."

She sat in the passenger seat and played it through the speakers.

Whitney's voice filled the car, calm and pleased, and I watched Hallie's hands instead of the speakers.

When it ended I realized my hands were locked on the wheel.

"The scar," I said. "The one you said you'd tell me about."