Chapter Two

Too Close

The days after the hallway almost settled into a new, sharper rhythm.

David remained a constant presence coffee in the morning, the radio playing in the garage while he worked on some project, the evening news at the same volume he had always preferred. His warmth filled the house the way it always had. It also meant that every charged second between James and me had an expiration date. We learned the timing of his footsteps the way other people learned traffic lights.

Shared laundry became its own special kind of torture.

I walked into the laundry room on the second afternoon and found James already...