Back With Baby, Ex Regrets Deeply novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Thirty

I was on Marlborough Street in ten minutes, with wet hair and no bra and one of Alistair's sweaters over my jeans.

The van was still at the curb.

The piano was halfway down the front steps, tilted on the dolly, with one mover braced below it and one above.

Laurel stood on the top step in a silk robe with a coffee, directing.

"Careful with the corner. It's old, but it's worth something."

"Put it down," I said.

Both movers looked at me.

The one at the bottom was gray-haired and red-faced, holding most of the weight.

"Ma'am, we've got a work order."

"From her?"

"From Mrs. Fitch, yeah."

"It's my piano. As of midnight it's my piano, on my steps, in front of my house." I came up the steps until I was level with him. "If you put it in that van, you're taking it from me. I'd like you to bring it back inside."

He looked up at Laurel.

Laurel smiled down at me over her coffee.

"Oh, hi. You got my text."

"Happy birthday to me."

"Dad said I could have it. It's a wedding gift. Three years late, but still."

"Dad can't give you anything in this house. Not since midnight."

"Well, it's not in the house," Laurel said. "Is it? It's on the steps."

A window went up next door.

Then another across the street.

The old woman who'd lived next door my whole life leaned out in her bathrobe.

She'd brought my mother soup every day for the last month.

"Faye Odell," she called. "Is that you?"

"It's me, Mrs..." I stopped, because I'd only ever called her by what my mother called her. "It's me."

"Your mother played that thing every Sunday with the windows open," she said, loud enough for the whole street. "I used to complain. I'd give anything to complain again. You put it back, young man."

The red-faced mover looked at his partner.

His partner shrugged.

"Back up, then," the old mover said. "Easy. On three."

"You don't work for her," Laurel snapped.

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