Page 85 of Piece By Piece

So I can’t promise you that I won’t get scared again.

I can’t promise you that I won’t try to hide.

But I’m not going to hide from you, not anymore.

The crossword said STAY.

I meant it, and I still mean it.

Grant.

He folded the letter into thirds and held it for a moment.

This piece of paper contained more of himself than anything else he’d ever published.

He had more honesty in that little piece of paper than forty million downloads of an app.

He slipped it into the envelope.

On the front, in his careful handwriting, he wrote her name.

He didn’t deliver the letter himself.

It wasn’t because he was hiding.

He was done with that.

But because he knew that Liza needed space.

So showing up at her door with a letter would just be another way of him making her respond on his timeline instead of hers.

Instead, he took the letter to Dixie.

She was at her house on the porch drinking coffee with her braced wrist resting on the armrest.

She saw him walking up and looked at him with those sharp blue eyes.

“Sit down,” she said.

He sat.

“I take it that’s for her?”

She nodded at the envelope.

“Yes.”

“Did you write it by hand?”

“Yes.”

“In blue ink?”

He looked at her.

“How did you…”

“Honey, I’ve been watching you for two weeks. I know about those margin notes. I know about the crossword at the marsh. I’m old, for sure, but not oblivious.”