Chapter 21: Say It

Nobody on the bridge said a word.

Harriet's cane came down on the planks, once.

"Brendan Sutcliffe. You will not do this."

"I'm doing it, Grandmother."

"You will lose the house."

"I know."

"You will lose the Trust, and your father's name on it, and every dollar you have ever spent."

"I know that too."

He said it quietly, and then he turned his back on her.

It was the first time I had ever seen him do it.

He walked down the bridge.

Two hundred people parted to let him through, and he didn't look at one of them.

At the far rail, in the dark, Lena stood with her scarf pulled tight and her face wet.

He stopped in front of her.

"Brendan," she said. "Don't. Not for me. You'll hate me."

"I won't."

"You will, in a year."

"Lena." He put both hands on her face, the way they were in the photograph.

His voice carried to every person there.

"I love Lena Bulkley.

"I have loved her since I was twelve years old, and I have never once said so in front of anyone.

"I'm saying it now."

A sound went down the bridge.

Behind me, my mother caught my father's sleeve.

Brendan kissed her.

It was not shy, and it was not for show.

He kissed her at the rail of the Marlow Falls bridge, with the town watching.

His grandmother's cane shook on the planks, and Lena grabbed his lapels and held on.

I watched.

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