Her Husband's Other Life novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Man on the Path

He was waiting beside the book drop in a canvas work jacket, with his hands in his pockets.

I knew him at once, though I had never seen his face.

He was tall, with brown hair going grey over the ears, and he looked like a man who had slept in a chair.

"Mrs. Oxley," he said.

"You were on the path," I said. "On Friday, with a clipboard."

"I was."

"You watched the whole ceremony."

"I watched the lawn." He didn't flinch.

"I was counting chairs for the reception. I didn't see your face until you turned around."

"By then you were walking to a car."

I wanted to be angry, and I found it hard to be angry at someone who answered every question.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"Can we sit?"

There was a bench by the bike rack, and the sun was out for the first time in a week.

He sat at the far end and left a lot of room.

"My name is Nate Brandeis," he said. "My grandmother built Willow Creek. I run it now."

"The chapel too."

"The chapel too." He rubbed his jaw.

"Six weeks ago a woman named Sabrina Keene booked it for a theatrical ceremony."

"She told my events manager it was a prank wedding for a group of friends."

"It wasn't a prank. It was a wedding."

"It looked like one." He took a small flash drive out of his pocket and set it on the bench between us.

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