“That was wrong.”
“But?”
“
But leaving made it seem like I regretted being with you.”
My heartbeat changed.
“Did you?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
I looked away.
Daniel continued.
“I regretted that I hadn’t told you the truth first.”
“That’s different.”
“Yes.”
We stood beneath the yellow streetlight outside Harold’s office.
Then Daniel said quietly:
“I don’t expect anything from you.”
“Good.”
“I mean it.”
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“You talk too much when you’re nervous.”
He smiled.
“So Robert told you?”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“I noticed.”
Then I kissed him.
Claire gasped behind us.
Michael said, “Oh, come on.”
I turned.
“You’re thirty-five years old.”
“Still traumatized.”
Daniel laughed.
For the first time since my birthday began, everything felt almost light.
Almost.
Because Samuel was not finished.
We learned that the next morning.
He had been released pending further investigation.
And sometime during the night, the lake house at Willow Point had been
