Chapter 21: Pie Boy

Giles's POV

Dean asked to meet at the Lantern.

I should have said no.

I said yes, because I wanted to sit in that corner chair again with my wife waiting at my mother's house and nothing left to be afraid of.

Tillie was at my mother's house, sorting quilts with her own mother and mine.

I told her I was getting pie.

She narrowed her eyes at me, and then she kissed me and told me to bring her a slice.

The diner was almost empty at nine on a Friday.

The waitress with the gray ponytail saw me come in and tilted her head toward the corner.

Dean was already there, in the corner seat, with a cup of coffee in front of him that he hadn't touched.

He had lost weight in a week.

His good watch was gone from his wrist, and the white band of skin where it had been stood out on his tan.

"Pie boy," he said.

I sat down across from him.

"The waitress told me. She'd tell anyone."

"Good."

"You sat here all night for her."

"Not all night. Until they closed."

"And she married you anyway."

"Why did you ask me here, Dean?"

He reached under the table and set a plain white envelope on the Formica.

It was thick.

"Ten thousand dollars," he said. "I sold the watch and the golf clubs. It's cash."

"What for?"

"Annul it."

I looked at the envelope.

"You can do it in a week. Tell her you made a mistake. Tell her your mother pushed you."

"You tell her you can't afford her and you're going back to Boston."

"She'll hate you, but she'll come home."

"To you."

"To me."

He smiled, and it was the worst thing about him, that smile.

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