My Stepbrother Is My Secret novel · Chapter 18 of 32

Chapter 18: Room 112

The TV went off.

Footsteps crossed the room.

The chain rattled, and the door opened four inches, and then all the way.

Mateo stood there in gray sweatpants and an old T-shirt from a Houston engineering firm.

His glasses were pushed up on his head.

Behind him the room was small and very clean.

One bed, made tight.

A desk with his laptop and a stack of drawings.

His pressed shirts hanging in a row on the open rack by the sink.

Of course he'd ironed them in a motel.

"Cass," he said.

"Can I come in?"

He stepped back.

I came in and he shut the door, and we stood there in the yellow lamplight, three feet apart.

The air conditioner rattled under the window.

"Your shirts," I said.

"There's an iron in the closet." He almost smiled. "It's the only thing in here that works."

"Lupe's guys have been driving by."

"I know. One of them waved at me yesterday. I didn't know who he was."

I didn't sit.

Neither did he.

"I read it," I said.

He nodded.

"July tenth. In my own handwriting." My voice went. I waited for it to come back.

"I wrote it, Mateo. I wrote it, and I forgot it. I needed you to bring it to me."

"You'd have found it."

"Not in time. Not from her desk."

He didn't argue.

"I haven't forgiven you," I said.

"I know."

"I want you to hear me say it. I haven't. I don't know if I'm going to."

"You sat at that table with your name on her paper for five weeks, and I don't know yet what I do with that."

"Okay."

"So here are my terms."

He stood very straight.

"One," I said.

"No secret from me. Ever again. Not a big one, not a small one, not one you're keeping for my own good."

"If your mother calls you, I know. If you sign something, I read it first."

"Yes."

"Two. You tell my father about January. Yourself. To his face. Not me. Not a note. You."

He didn't hesitate.

"Yes," he said.

"He's going to hate you."

"He should."

"He might throw you out of the company."

"Then he throws me out." He looked at me steadily. "I'll go in the morning."

We stood there.

The highway roared past behind the curtains.

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