Chapter 16: Midnight

At a quarter to midnight I was standing in my grandmother's bedroom with a quilt in my arms.

I had not been able to fold it for five years.

I folded it in thirds and put it on the chair, and then I went downstairs and opened the back door.

Callum was on the step with snow in his hair and the answering machine wrapped in a blanket under his arm.

"Bev made me leave," he said. "She said you wanted the house quiet."

"I want you in it."

He did not move.

"Maggie, I'm not going to take advantage of the worst week of your life."

"You're not."

"The terms."

"I wrote the terms," I said. "I get to overrule them."

I took the blanket from him and set the machine on the kitchen table, and then I took his hand and pulled him in out of the cold.

I shut the door and locked it with the key he had made me.

"You said a year," he said.

"I said don't take a step toward me until you've stayed somewhere for a year."

"That's still on the table?"

"The year is." I stepped up to him. "Tonight isn't."

He put his hands on either side of my face, and they were rough and cold.

"You're sure."

"You're the only man in this town who ever left me a coffee and asked for nothing."

"I've wanted to kiss you since you were a pair of shoes under a recliner."

"Then do it properly."

He did.

It was slow at the start, and then I got my fingers into his hair and it was not slow at all.

He backed me up against the refrigerator.

His mouth moved down to my jaw, and my throat, and the hollow above my collarbone.

I heard myself make a sound I had not made in years.

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