His Letters Reached Me Fourteen Years Late, and the First Said Goodbye novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Kitchen Table
We did not talk in the truck, and we did not talk on the walk.
Alister carried the shoebox up my mother's steps because I asked him to. It was a small thing, and I saw him understand it.
In the kitchen I put my keys on the table and my mother's phone book beside them.
Then I took out my cell phone.
"Who are you calling?" Alister said.
"The realtor. It's a Sunday night, so she won't pick up."
She did not pick up.
I listened to the beep.
Then I said, clearly, "This is Odalys Eckert at 214 Fairview Street. The house is not for sale."
"I'm withdrawing from the closing on the thirty-first. Call me Tuesday."
I hung up and set the phone down.
Alister stood at the edge of the kitchen with his hands at his sides.
He did not say anything for so long that I thought he had not heard.
"You don't know what happens after," he said at last. "You said so on the levee."
"I said it on the levee, and I was wrong about what I didn't know."
"Odalys," he said.
"I'm done pretending I'm a visitor."
I crossed the floor.
"I'm going to finish the trial. I'll fly back Tuesday and give notice on the apartment."
"And the judge?" he said.
"I have her card. I'm going to call her on my own and ask for the post on my own terms."
I put both hands on his chest.
"Nobody owes anybody," I said. "You chose me twice. This is me choosing you, for the first time, in my own kitchen."
His face did something complicated.
He took hold of my wrists, and he did not let go.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of His Letters Reached Me Fourteen Years Late, and the First Said Goodbye are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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