Married to My Ex's Uncle novel · Chapter 12 of 32
Chapter 12: I Can't Answer You
Every face on the dock turned to Lukas.
He stood at the far end with the dog's leash in his hand and didn't move.
Out on the barge, somebody lit the first rocket.
It went up with a long thin whistle and broke over the harbor in gold.
The crowd on the lawn went "Ooh."
Nobody on the dock looked up.
Greta walked back to her husband.
The boards were wet and loud under her sneakers.
She stopped in front of him.
The gold light came down slowly over his face and went out.
"Is that true?" she said.
He looked at her.
"Did he tell you something?" she said. "Nine years ago? Did my fiancé sit in a box in Sister Bay and tell you what happened on that boat?"
"I can't answer you," Lukas said.
It was quiet and steady.
It was the voice he'd used at the courthouse to say yes.
A red rocket went up.
Greta stared at him while it burst.
Behind her she could hear Tanner laughing on the stern of the cruiser, and Kristi saying, "Babe, don't."
"That's not a no," Greta said.
"It's the only thing I can say."
"Lukas."
"I can't answer you," he said again. "Not tonight, not next year, not ever. I'm sorry."
She understood.
It came over her slowly.
A man with nothing in his head would just have said no.
"You knew," she said.
He didn't answer.
"You knew when you stood up in that hall."
Nothing.
"You stood next to me while I scraped that frame. You handed me the razor. I told you about Kristi's statement on your own dock, and you said you were sorry, and you never asked me one single question about that night. Not one. I thought you were being kind."
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