Page 98 of When The Noise Stops

"You told me to go to Gabby. I did. I came back and you were gone."

I swallowed.

"Tiny had to hear it from Ronny that you were in D.C."

"I had to leave. I was a mess. After Reese. After everything. I needed to get my head straight. And I couldn't do that here. I know you think you could have helped, but you had your hands full."

He still didn't look at me.

"I should have told you. I should have called. I kept going to meetings. Ronny fixed me up. I'm back to as normal as I get."

He moved.

Two steps.

He caught me when I stepped back.

"I thought you weren't coming back."

"I'm here now. I left because I needed to know the difference between wanting you and needing you to keep me okay. Three months later, I figured it out. I can live without you. I just missed the fuck out of you. That proves wanting, doesn't it?"

He was quiet.

Then he said, "I can't go back to you calling it friendship every time I try to say what it is."

I swallowed.

"That wasn't me trying to hurt you."

"I know."

"I wasn't ready. I'm still not ready. But I can stop calling you my friend and pretending you don't mean more. Figure out the rest later?"

He closed his eyes for a long second.

"Okay."

He straightened. Looked at the door, not at me.

"Tiny said you're here to help."

Ronny came in as if on cue with a woman about our age, mixed race, Asian and Black maybe.

"This is her," Ronny said.

"Charlotte Ray."

Charlotte Ray did not sit until Knox did. She set a yellow pad on the desk like the shop office had just become a conference room.

"I don't do miracles," she said.

"Start by letting me know the ugly parts."

Knox told her everything about his broken marriage. The cheating. The judge from before. Three years of silence. Maggie going back to the husband and leaving Gabby like a coat she didn't want.

Charlotte wrote without blinking.

"Whose name is on her birth certificate?"