Page 34 of Montana Silence

“Will do.”

I ended the call and looked up a Chinese restaurant on my phone. It looked decent, and it was hard to get good Chinese in Montana. So I put together an order as I heard the water turn on from Mara’s room.

All we needed was the movie now. I didn’t know what kinds of movies Mara liked—we hadn’t gotten that far. I needed to ask her.

The Chinese food was fast, and I slipped down to the lobby to grab it. By the time she was out of the shower, I had an entire buffet laid out on my desk. We’d eat in here and watch in here, so at any time, she could retreat to her room and she didn’t need to feel like she was kicking me out.

Mara knocked softly, her hair damp from the shower, and in soft, comfy clothes I made a point not to look at too closely. She was the sexiest woman I’d ever seen, and being so close, with wet hair…

“I—uh.” I cleared my throat. “I got a bunch of food. Basically the whole menu. Whatever you want. But I wasn’t sure what kind of movie you wanted.”

Mara smiled and put a hand over her heart. Looking at the television, she shrugged and shook her head. She didn’t care. Another time, I would pull it out of her, but tonight, I understood. She needed a distraction from tomorrow, and she didn’t care what it was.

I watched her pick the food she liked, noticing the way she gravitated toward the sesame and orange chicken. The fried rice. She took some egg drop soup too. I wanted to memorize everything about her until she was all I could see and breathe.

Mara saw me staring at her and froze. Color rose to her cheeks. “Sorry,” I said with a smile. “I can’t stop looking at you.”

She raised her eyebrows in question.

“Why?”

One nod.

“Because you’re beautiful. And you’re doing this even though you don’t want to, and you’re handling it better than I ever could.”

The look she gave me said she didn’t believe me at all. That was fine. She didn’t need to believe it, because it was already true. Someday I hoped she would look back and be able to see it.

I didn’t push her.

There was an action movie on that I’d seen a few times. Interesting enough to watch, but not something I needed to pay attention to. Mara was my real focus. She ate, and when she was finished, she curled up beside me on the bed and fell asleep.

I waited until the movie finished before I moved, lifting her up and carrying her back to her bedroom. When Mara and I truly shared a bed for the first time, I wanted her to be aware of it.

She stirred when I laid her down, but she didn’t wake up. I covered her with a blanket and left the doors between our rooms cracked. Tomorrow was going to be hard for her. I only hoped I could make it better.

* * *

The courthouse was morecasual than I imagined it would be. The courthouses in Montana—and Missoula, especially—were older buildings with grandiose painted ceilings. It made you think the judge should be wearing a powdered wig. But the building here was closer to an office building. Big and square from the outside, bland inside.

As a much bigger city, Phoenix needed to focus on efficiency and movement. Not aesthetics.

I kept my hand on Mara’s lower back as we moved through the security, only releasing her to let her go through the metal detector. She hadn’t said a word all morning.

“Mara, there you are.” A tall woman with blond hair approached us. “It’s good to see you again. You look well.”

“Thank you.” Mara’s first and only words of the day.

“I’m Claire Marshall.” The woman held out her hand to me. “Mara’s lawyer. And you are?”

I took her hand and shook it. “I’m Liam. Mara’s boyfriend.” It was a risk to say it, but I glanced down at Mara and took her hand. The look on her face was all I needed. She was more than happy for me to take the title. It felt like a lifetime since I’d really seen her smile.

The lawyer’s eyebrows rose into her hairline. “Oh. I wasn’t aware you’d be here.”

Wrapping an arm around Mara’s shoulders, I pulled her closer. “Just here to support Mara. I won’t get in the way.”

She looked me up and down, like she was doubting whether it was true. “Come on, then,” she said. “We need to get to the courtroom. Things are starting shortly.”

We followed Claire down the maze of twisting halls until she pushed open a set of double doors. It wasn’t a typical courtroom, because instead of one judge, there was a panel of people who’d be listening. The rest of it was set up in a familiar format.

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