Semua Bab Shared by My Husband's Best Friends: Bab 11 - Bab 20

The first night of the new rules was the longest.I slept alone in the master bedroom. Derek slept on the couch. He had insisted. He said he did not deserve the bed. I did not argue.Luca stayed in the guest room. Eli stayed in the other guest room. The doors were closed. The house was silent.I lay awake, staring at the ceiling. The seventeen cracks were still there. I had not counted them in a while. I counted them now. Still seventeen.In the morning, I showered. I dressed in jeans and a sweater. I walked to the kitchen.Luca was there. Shirtless. Making coffee. He turned when I entered. His eyes were careful.He asked how I slept.I said better than expected.He nodded. He poured me a cup of coffee. He set it on the table. He did not sit across from me. He stayed by the counter.He said he was trying to respect the rules.I said I noticed.He asked if it was working.I said I did not know yet.Derek came in from the living room. His hair was messy. His shirt was wrinkled. He had n

I closed the door. The cold air stayed outside. Luca stood in the middle of the cabin, his hands at his sides. His chest was still heaving from the drive. Or from fear. I could not tell.The fire crackled behind me. The only light in the room.I asked how long he had been following me.He said since I left the house. He waited until dark. He parked half a mile down the road. He walked the rest.I asked why.He said because he could not let me disappear. Not again.I did not know what again meant.He walked to the window. He looked out at the dark trees. His reflection was pale in the glass.He said he had spent two years watching me from a distance. Two years of dinner parties and holidays and brief hugs. Two years of wanting and not touching. He was done watching.I asked what he wanted instead.He turned around. His eyes were dark. He said he wanted to be here. With me. In this cabin. No Derek. No Eli. No rules.I should have told him to leave. I should have given him back the key a

I stood in the kitchen, holding Eli's note. The paper was soft. His handwriting was neat. The words blurred in front of my eyes.If you want me, you know where to find me.I knew where. His apartment. The one he had moved to after college. The one he never left. I had been there once. Years ago. With Derek. Before the accident.I folded the note. I put it in my pocket.Derek was still asleep on the couch. His cane was on the floor. His face was peaceful.I walked to the guest room. Luca's door was open. He was sitting on the bed, staring at the wall. He looked up when I entered.He said she was back early.I said Eli left.Luca nodded. He said he knew. Eli had knocked on his door at dawn. Said goodbye. Asked Luca to take care of Derek.I asked if Luca tried to stop him.Luca shook his head. He said Eli had made up his mind. No one could change it.I said I could.Luca looked at me. His eyes were tired.He asked if she was going after him.I said yes.Luca stood up. He walked to me. He

The first week at Eli's apartment was quiet.Not the heavy silence of Derek's house. Not the kind of quiet that pressed down on my chest and made it hard to breathe. This was a soft quiet. The quiet of morning coffee. The quiet of books on a shelf. The quiet of someone breathing next to me in sleep.Eli worked from home. He was a graphic designer. He sat at his desk by the window, his tablet in his hand, his brow furrowed in concentration. I sat on the couch. I read. I stared out the window. I learned how to be still without being empty.He asked if I wanted to find a job.I said not yet.He asked if I wanted to see Derek.I said not yet.He did not push.At night, we cooked together. He taught me how to make his mother's sauce. I taught him how to make the salad my grandmother used to make. We ate at the small table. We held hands across the surface.We made love. Slowly. Gently. No hunger. Just connection.I started sleeping through the night.The second week, I woke at midnight. El

The days after Derek's surgery were a blur of texts and phone calls.He sent updates. Small ones. I can feel my ankles. I can feel my knees. I can feel my thighs. Each message landed in my chest like a stone.Eli watched me read them. He did not ask what Derek said. He just waited.I tried to focus on us. On the small apartment. On the quiet mornings. On the way Eli hummed while he made coffee.But Derek's words followed me.I can feel my hips. I can feel my lower back.The feeling was climbing. Soon he would be whole again. Soon he would be the man he was before the accident.I did not know what that meant for me.On the tenth day after surgery, Derek called.His voice was different. Stronger. He said the doctors were amazed. His recovery was faster than expected. He was walking without a cane.I said I was happy for him.He asked if I meant it.I said yes.He was quiet for a moment. Then he asked if he could see me. Just once. To thank me in person.I looked at Eli. He was at his de