How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

Chapter 610

She'd almost managed to forget.

"Are you even being reasonable? That's not what we're supposed to be discussing." Elodie's expression had lost its usual calm, her voice edged with a rare sharpness.

Jarrod tossed his phone onto the table. "If I weren't reasonable, you wouldn't have gotten the upper hand that night."

Elodie stared at him, momentarily forgetting her anger at being deceived, stunned by what he'd just said.

Jarrod sat down again and looked up at her. "My grandmother's asleep. Don't wake her. I'm staying here you take the bed, all right?"

Elodie's gaze turned icy as she cooled down, making it clear she had no interest in pretending things were fine anymore. "You're always swamped with work. I'm sure you can come up with some excuse to leave. No sense in both of us being uncomfortable."

Jarrod glanced at her, his tone unchanged. "Fine."

He grabbed his clothes, ready to leave.

A headache flared behind Elodie's eyes. If she really thought about it, what right did she have to kick the owner out of his own bedroom?

Suppressing the chaos in her chest, she finally said, "Forget it. This is your house. It's not a guest's place to throw the host out. Do as you like."

failed to keep their agreement, it would be her responsibility—and the whole family would make

last, she understood what kind of frightening person Jarrod really was. He'd never let anything

emptiness in her eyes when she called herself a "guest." With a cool precision, he pressed her sore spot. "Right. And in other people's homes, the 'guest' slaps the 'host' in the face? You've redefined the cheek-kiss, Ms. Thorne- turned it into a

touched you. If you're looking for someone

couch. "True. You only almost did.

going through with it. She should have dropped the pretense and slapped him

further and turned away to wash up

deadline for keeping up this charade is almost up.

left. Tonight was an exception; it wouldn't

the bed she'd slept in for three

didn't share

distance between them

walked over, switched off the main light, and left a small lamp on by the bed so she

night. Her dreams were scattered and tangled. When she woke, Jarrod was

up quickly and headed

being prepared. "Jarrod's gone

desire to linger. "There's something

too hard, sweetheart. Let me have someone wrap up

the kindness without