was surprised at how close the words were. They would have
spoiled dinner, and she wanted to enjoy it. It had been a long,
long time since anyone had done anything like this for her. She
couldn’t recall the last time someone made her so much as a
sandwich, let alone dinner, and going out for food didn’t
count.
“How did you have time to do this with your classes?”
“Oh, my last one ends at two thirty. It only took me half an
hour to drive back here, so I had time.” Emily went on eating,
chewing slowly. She didn’t watch Dani, didn’t pry silently or
softly with her eyes. The silence between them was
comfortable. “Those paintings are dry,” Emily said after a few
minutes. “You could take them down to the store tomorrow. If
you want to. I meant it. You can have all the money from
them.”
“What if you need it?”
Emily sighed. “I’m more hopeful today that I won’t.”
“You mean that you’ll go back to your parents’ house and
they’ll change their minds?”
“I’m just – I don’t know. I don’t know how all of that will
go.”
Of course, Emily would go back and live there. That was
her world. That was what she wanted. She was only here
because she’d needed a place to crash.
Dani made it clear the night before that she didn’t do
strings. That the marriage was still fake even if they’d
consummated it. She should have felt a huge amount of relief.
She should have been thankful that Emily would get out of her
hair and that she wouldn’t have time to work her way any
deeper under her skin, but suddenly the food didn’t taste quite