Chapter 4

By the time I came home the next morning to pack a suitcase, Logan had turned my office into Madeline’s nursery.

My key still worked. Upstairs, a drill whined behind the door where I had spent four years working.

Two deliverymen were assembling a white crib beneath the window. My books and files filled cardboard boxes. My mother’s walnut desk was gone.

Wooden letters beneath the window spelled BABY REED.

Logan stood beside the crib with an instruction manual.

“When did you order it?”

“Ava—”

“When?”

“Last week.”

Last week, I had been approving our engagement-party menu. He had watched me address invitations while this was already on its way.

I asked the deliverymen to give us a minute. One set down his drill, and they went downstairs.

“Where’s my desk?”

“In the garage. The chair too.”

I opened a box marked AVA—OFFICE. My laptop charger lay tangled around a framed photograph.

“You packed my work without asking me.”

“You can use the dining table.”

Four years ago, he had carried that desk upstairs and repaired its loose drawer. Your work belongs here too.

Now he turned a page of the crib instructions.

“And where does Madeline sleep?”

“The guest room.”

“You expected me to stay here while you were married to her?”

“It’s one year. I thought you understood that.”

Our silver engagement frame stood on the cabinet. Madeline’s ultrasound had replaced the photograph of Logan proposing.

I found our picture facedown beside it.

“Did she change this?”

“I did. She needs to feel welcome.”

I slipped the picture into my purse. For eighteen months, he had kept it where I could see it from my desk.

“Ava, this is still your home.”

I looked at the boxes bearing my name.

Then I called the movers.

They had a cancellation that morning. While I waited, I packed my clothes and checked every office box for missing files. I texted Sebastian to ask for a ride to the hotel.

In the garage, my desk stood beside the lawn mower. I pulled its drawer open. The repaired handle held.

The movers arrived forty minutes later. I paid for storage until I found an apartment and gave them the desk, chair, books and packed clothes. I kept a suitcase and one box of essentials for the hotel.

Logan watched them carry the desk out.

“You’re making a permanent decision over something temporary.”

“You ordered a crib before you even told me.”

“We can move it.”

He said it while holding the nursery door open for the deliverymen to finish.

Sebastian arrived as the moving van pulled away. He put my suitcase and box in his trunk while I checked the storage receipt.

Logan followed me onto the porch.

“So you’re moving in with him?”

“I’m going back to my hotel room.”

“Come inside. We can work this out.”

I walked down the steps.

“If you leave with him, don’t come back.”

I stopped beside the passenger door. Upstairs, the drill started again.

“You’re still having them finish it.”

He glanced toward the sound, then back at me.

I got into the car.

Before I could close the door, his hand caught the top of it.

“Before you go, tell me next summer is still ours.”

His hand stayed on the door.

“Tell me you’ll still marry me after the year is over.”