Married to My Ex's Uncle novel · Chapter 31 of 32

Chapter 31: The Dock

Greta opened the box.

Inside, on a twist of cedar shaving, was a ring made of wood.

It was thin and pale and smooth as glass, one unbroken curve of white oak.

There was a slip of paper folded under it, in Lukas's square carpenter's hand.

We skipped this part. It's the offcut from the first frame he ever bent. L.

She held it up to the work light.

She could see the grain running all the way around.

She slid it onto her finger, above his mother's band.

It fit.

She turned off the light, stepped over the dog, and climbed the ladder in the dark.

Lukas was asleep on his back.

She put her hand flat on his chest, ring and all.

He woke up at once.

"You found it," he said.

"It's wood."

"It's white oak," he said. "Steam-bent. Marine grade. It won't rot."

She laughed into his shoulder until he started laughing too.

Saturday came up cold and clear.

The maples on the bluff had gone red overnight.

By four o'clock there were sixty folding chairs on the shore below the boathouse, and every one of them was full.

The old mechanic stood at the end of the dock in his funeral tie with a printout in his hand.

He'd gotten ordained online on Tuesday for forty dollars.

"It's legal," he kept telling people. "I checked twice."

The apprentice was in charge of the music, which was the truck radio with the doors open.

The dentist from Egg Harbor and his wife sat in the front row.

The couple from Ellison Bay had brought three cherry pies.

The woman with the jet ski she didn't own yet had brought her kids, and the kids had brought the dog.

The widow from the fish boil sat on the aisle and patted Lukas's arm when he went past.

In the last row sat the woman in the gray cardigan, by herself, with her hands in her lap.

Lukas stood at the end of the dock in his one dark suit.

He'd had it let out at the shoulders in June.

He looked like a man waiting for a ruling.

The apprentice turned the radio down.

Greta came out of the boathouse door on her brother's arm.

She wore a green dress, plain, to the knee, and her hair down.

Halfway along the dock, Lukas saw the color.

She watched him understand it.

He had to look at the water for a second.

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