Page 138 of Come Back to Me

“I have.”

“How many times?”

“None of your business.”

“I saw her drinking the coffee you bought.”

“And Mrs. Abelman said the DVD wasn’t in her trash can, either.”

“You brought her in on this?”

“Not really. I just asked if one of the housekeepers had noticed a broken DVD in Tee’s room because I wanted to watch it.”

“What’s next? The incense?”

“No. I did that already.” I purse my lips. “Callan said I should send her letters.”

“Not a bad idea.”

“Maybe they’d work better than the gestures. They don’t appear to be making any headway.”

“I hoped they might. Zee’s not materialistic, but Tee…”

“Yeah. She likes stuff. Apparently, not as much as I was banking on,” I drawl. “Zee threatened to kill me the other day.”

“Death by rolling pin, wasn’t it?”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“You’re not an idiot. You should have realized she’d get involved.”

I grimace. “Think I should talk to her?”

“No. She won’t help. The letters?”

I think about the last one I wrote to her… I haven’t sent it yet. It’s sitting in my desk drawer.

“I’m a coward.”

“You’re not.”

“No. I am.”

“You’re scared of losing someone who matters to you, Cody. We’ve… Look, none of us have experienced a functional family. It’s difficult to know what to do with love, and it’s difficult to know how to make things better.

“Whenever Clyde fucked up with Mum, he never said sorry to her. He just compounded it by making her cry so she’d forget.

“This is a learning curve. But the thing about us is that when we love, we love hard, and when we try to make up for the past, we give it our all.

“Eventually, you’ll make her see that you weren’t just being an asshole. But you have to open up to her, Cody. The grand gestures are great. It shows you listened to her, but if she won’t talk to you, then you’ll never make a breakthrough. The lettersworked their way into her heart once, bro. They’ll work a second time.”

“Tonight.” The word croaks out of me.

“Good. We can adjust the plan if it doesn’t work.”

I tug on my bottom lip. “Callan knew.”

“About?”

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