Chapter 13: A Waiver I Never Signed

Megan let herself in at seven on Thursday with a bag of bagels and her night-shift face.

She looked at me for a moment.

"You didn't sleep in your bed," she said.

"I slept."

"There's sawdust in your hair."

I put a hand up and pulled out a curl of pale wood shaving.

Megan set the bag on the counter very slowly.

"Carys."

"It's a long story."

"It's Caleb."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because last night you called him a liar, and this morning you're humming." She pointed a bagel at me. "How did he explain the second log?"

"He lent Joss his phone two days before Lisbon. He didn't know what the call was for."

"And you believe that."

"I do."

"Because he explained it?"

"Because he didn't try to make it smaller," I said. "He said he was a coward, and he didn't ask me to say it was okay."

Megan chewed for a while.

"Fine," she said. "I'm not asking what else happened."

"Good."

"I can see what else happened. It's on your neck."

I pulled my collar up.

"Nobody can know until Saturday night," I said. "Joss is watching me. If she thinks I trust him, she goes after him first."

"My mouth is a vault."

"Your mouth has never been a vault."

"Then watch it become one." She grinned. "He's a good one, Carys. Quiet guys have good hands."

"Megan."

"I'm a nurse. I know hands."

Someone knocked on the door.

Megan opened it before I could, and went still.

Jared stood on the mat in a clean shirt, with a paper coffee tray and no truck keys in his hand.

He had shaved, and his eyes were clear.

"I'm sober," he said, before anyone asked. "Two days now."

"Turn around and go back to wherever you slept," Megan said.

"Let him talk," I said.

She gave me a look and stepped aside by an inch.

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