"Because it isn't mine," I said.
Dean held the faded black fabric between his hands. The Bellweather Mill Restoration Crew logo stretched across his knuckles.
"You kept a piece of dirty laundry for a decade just to return it?" he asked, his tone skeptical.
"You gave it to me on our last day at the site," I told him, keeping the checkout counter between us. "The sky broke open. We were soaked. You handed me your spare shirt so I wouldn't freeze on the drive home."
"I remember the rain, Mara."
"I planned to give it back to you at the Waterbury station the next morning," I continued, forcing the words out into the quiet shop. "I packed it in my tote bag. I drove halfway to the depot. Then Dr. Evans called my cell and told me my mother's biopsy results came back malignant."
Dean’s hands stilled. The fabric dropped an inch. "You never showed up."
"I turned the truck around and drove to the hospital."
"I waited at the Waterbury station for ninety minutes." His voice roughened, shedding the accusatory edge from earlier. "I watched three different trains pull away. I thought you decided I wasn't worth the risk."
"I decided my dying mother needed me more than a guy I almost kissed."
"We didn't almost kiss," he corrected, his eyes locking onto mine. "We were interrupted by the foreman. There is a difference."
"The result is the same. You went to Boston. You met Celeste. You got married."
"I took the Boston job because you didn't show." Dean stepped out of the closet doorway, closing the distance to the edge of the rug. "If you had met me at that station, I would have stayed in Stowe."
"Stop." I held up a hand. "You are a married man standing in my foyer. I am not having this conversation."
A sharp hiss cut through the hallway, followed by a loud, metallic clank.
I spun toward the noise. A rush of water sprayed from the baseboard radiator outside the downstairs guest bathroom, soaking the vintage runner rug.
"The valve," I muttered, rushing past him.
Dean beat me to it. He dropped to his knees on the flooded floorboards. Freezing water blasted his chest and arms. He grabbed the rusted shut-off valve and wrenched it clockwise. The metal groaned, resisting his grip, before finally turning. The spray sputtered and died, leaving a steady, pathetic drip.
Dean rocked back on his heels. His button-down shirt clung to his skin, completely drenched. Icy water dripped from his chin and soaked into his slacks.
"Get out of those clothes," I ordered, grabbing a stack of towels from the bathroom shelf and throwing them at his chest.
He caught the towels. "Do you want me freezing to death in your hallway?"
"Put the T-shirt on."
He grabbed the old Bellweather shirt from the floor where he had dropped it. He stripped off his wet button-down without hesitation. The porch light filtered through the front windows, casting sharp shadows across his shoulders. He pulled the faded black cotton over his head.
Ten years ago, the shirt fit him loosely. Now, the fabric pulled taut across his chest and biceps. The cracked white logo warped over the heavy muscle.
My throat went dry. I looked away, fixing my gaze on the ruined rug.
"If you had come to the station," Dean asked softly, tossing his ruined shirt onto the tiles, "what would you have said?"
"I would have said goodbye." I pointed toward the front of the shop. "You sleep on the reading room sofa. Not in the guest rooms. Not near the stairs."
"Mara—"
"Go look at the papers Celeste handed you," I interrupted, marching back into the main bookstore. "Because I just read the photos I took, and you have a much bigger problem than a wet shirt."
Dean followed me to the glass counter. He grabbed the thick stack of documents.
"Look at the first page," I told him. "Top right corner."
He flipped the cover sheet. His brow furrowed. "There's no court stamp."
"It's a draft," I said. "She hasn't filed anything. This is a settlement proposal."
"Why would she hand me a draft and lock me out of the house?"
"Turn to page fourteen. The appendix."
Dean flipped through the thick paper. He stopped, his eyes scanning the dense legal text. His jaw hardened.
"Read section four aloud," I demanded.
"'If the respondent engages in intimate relations with a specified third party before the final dissolution of the marriage, he forfeits his entire share of the marital home equity.'" Dean looked up. "Four hundred and eighty thousand dollars."
"Keep reading," I pushed.
He looked back down. "'The specified third party is identified as...'" His voice died in his throat.
"Say it."
"Mara Elise Whitmore."
The silence in the bookstore felt heavy enough to crush glass.
"She wrote my full name into a loyalty clause," I said, my voice rising. "She is setting a trap. If you sleep with me, she gets the house. If you even look like you're sleeping with me, she has grounds to ruin you financially."
"I haven't even spoken to you in six years!" Dean slammed the papers onto the counter. "How the hell does she have your full name?"
"I don't know." I grabbed my phone and forwarded the new images to Priya's email address. "But you are not sleeping anywhere near my private quarters. You stay in the public area. Under the security cameras."
Dean scrubbed a hand through his damp hair. "Celeste is a corporate litigator. She doesn't draft clauses like this based on a hunch. She wouldn't put your specific name in a legal document unless she already fabricated the proof to back it up."
"What proof?" I asked, stepping around the counter. "We haven't seen each other."
"Think about it," he urged, stepping closer. "She ordered the car here. She sent me straight to your door. She wants us in the same building."
I shook my head, refusing to let him close the distance. "She can't prove something that never happened."
"She doesn't need to prove we slept together yet," Dean said grimly. "She just needs to prove I came straight to you."
I reached for the divorce papers, grabbing the final page of the appendix to slide it back into the stack. My thumb brushed over a small block of text at the very bottom, right below the signature line.
I froze.
The typed letters stared back at me, black and undeniable.
"Anticipated cohabitation location—North Star Books & Rooms."
