Old Maid For My Room, Young Maid For His Bed, I Kicked All Three Out novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: What We Were Told

I woke before light in Erik's bed with his arm heavy across my ribs.

The phone on the nightstand held eleven texts from Dorothea, one for every hour.

Eli asleep. Eli asleep. Mr. Granlund came up and tried the door. Eli asleep.

The last said: Eli ate eggs. He asked for you. I said Mommy is at Uncle Erik's, because it was true.

I put the phone down and lay still.

Erik was awake. I could tell by his breathing.

"I have to say something," I said, "and you aren't going to like it."

"I've had four years of not liking things."

"You weren't at my mother's funeral."

His arm went rigid.

"I stood at that grave with Eli on my hip," I said. "I looked down the road for your truck until they filled it in."

"Jo."

"Craig told me you had better things to do."

"Is that what he said?"

"Yes. And I believed him. I made myself believe it, because it was easier than thinking you would let me do that alone."

He sat up.

He got out of bed and stood with his back to me, looking at the lake through the window.

"I was there," he said.

I did not breathe.

"The note was on my windshield that morning. Pencil. No stamp." He took his wallet off the dresser and did not open it. "I drove to the cemetery anyway. I parked at the gate, at the bottom of the hill, with the engine off."

"You were there."

"I watched you the whole time. You had Eli on your hip and a black coat that was too big. You didn't cry."

"I couldn't."

"I know. I could see." His voice caught. "I thought, she wrote me that note, she doesn't want me within a mile of her, and if I walk up that hill I'll make it worse."

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