“It was a wrong number,” I say, and she doesn’t say anything else. “This morning, the text I got. It was a wrong number.”

“Justin, there is no need to explain anything to me.” Her voice is flat. “You’re free to do what you want with who you want.”

“Caroline,” I say her name, and I really don’t want to have this conversation on the phone.

“I really have to go,” she says, and just like that, she hangs up, leaving me stuck looking down at the phone.

This woman is going to push me to be like Matthew, I think. Suddenly, everything that he’s ever done makes so much sense.

Chapter Fourteen

Caroline

He isn’t yours, I tell myself the whole way to work. He isn’t yours, and you aren’t his. This is what you want for him. But the whole time, all I see are the words in my head.

Last night was everything.

No wonder he looked so tired this morning. He probably spent the whole night with someone. I force my mind to shut off when Father Rolly explains my duties. Luckily for me, Murielle left everything in order, so just picking up where she left off is a breeze.

By the time noon rolls around, I’m sitting at the desk with nothing else to do. Father Rolly went out to make a house call and will be back, so I turn the computer on and search for the pawn shops in the area.

I call ten of the ones that I know Andrew has been to, but none of them have anything like what I’m describing. I hang up the phone, and it rings right away, and when I answer it, I’m smiling until I hear his voice.

I want to be mad that he was with someone, but I can’t be. I give him one-word answers, and he knows within two minutes into the conversation—hell, within one minute into the conversation—that I’m not myself.

“It was a wrong number,” he says, and the pen in my hand that I was tapping on the notepad stops. “This morning, the text I got. It was a wrong number.”

“Justin, there is no need to explain anything to me.” I pretend that I’m fine, and that everything is fine. “You’re free to do what you want with who you want.” I close my eyes, trying not to picture him with someone else.

“Caroline,” he says, and my heart pulls to him. To tell him that I was jealous and angry. That I don’t know what is going on, but I want to tell him everything, except I don’t.

“I really have to go.” I put the phone down and take a deep inhale and exhale.