Chapter 4

Blair kept one hand in Rhys’s as he guided her around a puddle.

I was still kneeling in the garage, pressing a child’s thank-you card between two dry towels.

Rhys carried her suitcase past the leaking box without looking down.

Blair did.

“Oh my God.” She stopped beneath the garage light. “Rhys, you didn’t move Mara’s things out here because of me, did you?”

“She wasn’t using the room for anything important.”

My hand stilled over the card.

Blair looked at me with wide, apologetic eyes. One arm remained linked through Rhys’s.

“I’m so sorry, Mara. I told him I could stay anywhere.”

“It’s fine,” Rhys said. “She doesn’t mind.”

“I do.”

The words cut through the rain.

Rhys turned toward me. Blair’s smile froze for half a second before softening into concern.

“Then I’ll get a hotel,” she said. “Really. I don’t want to cause trouble.”

“You’re not staying in a hotel.”

Rhys answered before she had even reached for her phone.

Blair lowered her gaze, but she didn’t release his arm.

“Only if Mara is comfortable.”

They both looked at me, waiting for me to remove the discomfort they had created.

“You already know Rhys’s decision,” I said.

Blair gave a helpless little laugh. “We’ve been together ten minutes, and I’m already making things awkward.”

Twenty minutes, I thought.

She had been back twenty minutes, and my work was already soaking through in the garage.

Rhys lifted her suitcase.

“Come inside. You’re getting cold.”

He had not asked whether I was cold when he left me kneeling on the concrete.

I gathered the books that could still be saved and followed them into the house.

Blair stood in the foyer, looking around as if she were returning somewhere familiar. Rain glittered in her blond hair. When Rhys set down her luggage, she wrapped both arms around his waist.

“God, I missed you, Halston.”

His hand settled naturally against her back.

“Still dramatic, Sutton.”

“Still handsome.”

They smiled at each other with the ease of people continuing a conversation that had only briefly paused.

Then Blair looked over his shoulder and seemed to remember I was there. She released him.

“Sorry, Mara. We’ve always been like this.”

She said it as if their history excused everything that happened after it.

A second suitcase waited beside the door, along with a camera case, a large duffel bag and a cardboard box marked FRAGILE.

Rhys had said a few days.

Blair had packed as if she were moving in.

“My rental isn’t quite ready,” she said, noticing my gaze. “There’s some problem with the plumbing. It may take a little longer than I expected.”

“Stay as long as you need,” Rhys said.

He did not look at me.

Blair touched his arm. “I’m not high-maintenance. You know me. I’m basically one of the guys.”

Behind her, Rhys’s housekeeper carried lavender candles and new towels toward the blue room.

Blair followed Rhys into the kitchen without asking where anything was. She opened the correct cabinet and took down the whiskey glasses.

“You still keep them here.”

“Some things don’t change.”

She noticed the prescription bottles beside his empty pill organizer. Her expression became tender.

“You’re still forgetting these?”

“Occasionally.”

Blair stepped closer and placed her hand against his side, just above the place where the transplant scar rested beneath his shirt.

“How’s our kidney?”

The wet books grew heavier in my arms.

Rhys smiled.

“Mara makes sure I take care of it.”

Of course I did.

My body had paid the price. My hands had done the work. Blair still got to call it ours.

“I should put these somewhere dry,” I said.

Blair turned to me. “Mara, could you show me where everything is first? I don’t want to keep bothering Rhys.”

“Rhys prepared the room. He can show you.”

Silence tightened across the kitchen.

Rhys gave me a warning look, but Blair laughed before he could speak.

“Of course. I’m sorry. Long flight.” She took the smaller suitcase from him. “I can carry my own things. I’ve slept on airport floors, couches, even in the back of Rhys’s truck. I’m not one of those women who needs everything perfect.”

Rhys took the suitcase back from her.

“You nearly complained for a week after sleeping in that truck.”

“Because you stole the only blanket.”

Their laughter followed them upstairs.

I carried my books to the laundry room and spread them across every available surface. Some pages would dry. Others were already bleeding ink.

When I returned to the hallway, Blair was standing outside the blue room while Rhys moved her luggage inside.

She touched my arm.

“I really am glad he had you while I was gone.”

I looked at her hand until she removed it.

Blair’s smile remained gentle.

“Sometimes I think about how strange life is. If I hadn’t gone through that surgery for him, you and Rhys might never have married.”

Rhys paused in the doorway, but he did not correct her.

Blair glanced toward him, then back at me.

“I suppose, in a strange way, I gave you both this marriage.”

The woman who had taken credit for my kidney was now offering me my own husband as a gift.

I held her gaze.

“Then I hope one day you receive everything you’re owed.”

Her smile brightened, as if I had thanked her.

Downstairs, Blair glanced toward the garage entrance.

“Do you still hide the spare key above that door?”

Rhys laughed. “You remember that?”

“I may need one if I’m going to be here for a while.”

Rhys looked at me.

“Give Blair the spare from the kitchen drawer.”

I looked at him, silent for a moment, then took the spare key from the kitchen drawer, but I didn’t place it in Blair’s waiting hand.

Rhys held out his palm.

I set the key on the counter instead.

“There. Now she has a key to your house.”

“Our house,” Rhys corrected.

“If you say so.”

Blair clipped the key to her ring. “Thank you for making this easy.”

That night, I opened my calendar and changed the private countdown.

DAY 83.

Blair appeared in the reflection of the dark window behind me.

Her eyes rested on my screen before she leaned close enough for only me to hear.

“Eighty-three days should be more than enough.”