A Marriage Left Behind novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: Her Table

On the twenty-fourth of December, a year later, I set the table for four in my own dining room.

The house was mine now.

I had bought out the joint mortgage in March, and Thane had helped me repaint the front door a dark green that nobody had voted on.

The brass key from the porch rail sat in a dish by the toaster, with the spare batteries.

Bev came first, at four, in a red sweater with a reindeer on it, carrying a pie in each hand.

"Don't say anything about the sweater," she said.

"I love the sweater."

"It lights up."

She pressed a button on her hip, and the antlers blinked.

I laughed until I had to put the gravy boat down.

Brady's father arrived at five, in a good coat and a tie, with a bottle of cider in a paper bag.

He stood on my porch for a moment before he came in, and I understood that he was making sure he was welcome.

"Come in," I said. "You're allowed to be here."

"I wasn't sure."

"I asked you."

"You did," he said, and came in.

He gave me a card from Brady, mailed from Texas, with a check inside for three hundred dollars.

It was the ninth one.

The memo line said, "Truck, 9 of 14."

I put the check on the refrigerator under a magnet shaped like a pie.

"He's doing all right," his father said. "He asked after you, and I said you'd tell him if you wanted him to know."

"Thank you."

"Judith's still in the room above the dentist."

He said it before I could ask.

"She sent a card to the church. I'm told it said she was grateful for the community. Nothing else."

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