Chapter 7: Gabriel's POV: The Cut Edge

Gabriel's POV

I woke up at five with Lainey asleep on my arm and my wife's photo glowing on the nightstand.

I looked at it for a long time.

It was taken from behind, over a shoulder, with the crowd blurred out and the two of us sharp in the middle.

My hands were on her hips.

Her head was tipped back against my chest.

Anyone who saw it would see a stepfather holding his stepdaughter in a crowded seat.

I saw what I had seen all night, and I could not look away from it.

I slid my arm out from under her without waking her and went downstairs in my shorts.

The coffee maker was still full from the night before.

I poured it cold and drank it standing at the window.

I had taken my ring off Saturday before the game and put it in the dish by the front door.

I had not put it back on, and I had not decided why.

Rosalyn's number was on my phone.

I pressed it.

It rang once.

I hung up.

Then I stood at the sink and told myself the truth, which was that I had no idea how to say any of it.

I'm in bed with your daughter. I think I've been in love with her since Christmas. I am thirty-eight years old, and I knew better.

None of those were things a man said over the phone to a woman in New York.

So I sat down at the kitchen table with my head in my hands.

That was when I started thinking about the seat.

I had not thought about it once since Saturday.

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