Chapter 23: What He Gave Up

Roz drove me north in the delivery van and didn't say a word until the gravel road.

"I'm waiting at the end of the lane for ten minutes," she said.

"If you don't wave, I'm coming in with the bat."

"Roz."

"Ten minutes."

The porch light was on.

Nolan sat on the top step in his coat, with his elbows on his knees.

He stood when the van's lights found him. He did not come down.

I got out with the green dress over my arm and the black one wet to the hem.

The van backed away.

"You came," he said.

"The door was open."

"It's always been open."

I climbed the steps and stopped one below him. That made us nearly the same height.

"Tell me what you did," I said. "Not what you said. What you did."

He took a breath.

"I called the owner from the parking lot, after the ice."

"I told him I won't take the medical director job. Not now, not ever."

"He offered you that?"

"He did. In the tunnel, after you left."

"And?"

"I handed in my notice. I'm done with the Ironmen."

He said it quietly.

"Eleven years. I'm thirty-seven with a bad knee and no job."

I stared at him.

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I'm putting my name on a statement for the state board."

"I can't do that while I draw their paycheck."

"What statement?"

"That I knew for three years. That I watched you go into that clinic every month and said nothing."

His jaw moved.

"I'm asking them to censure me, not excuse me. I may lose my license anyway."

"Nolan."

"You asked what I did. That's what I did."

The wind came off the lake and moved the pines. I stood very still.

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