My Groom Walked Out, So His Brother Took His Place novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: The Check

Alvin Stehling's study had a longhorn skull over the fireplace and a desk the size of a calving pen.

He asked me to sit.

I sat, because my mother had raised me to, and because I wanted to see what he would do.

It was Monday morning.

The newspaper lay on his blotter with my laughing face on top.

"Bryn," he said. "That's a lovely picture."

"It's a good lens."

"Thank you for the weekend. The campaign's phones haven't stopped. Women are calling to say they cried." He opened a drawer. "I'd like to give you something."

He slid a check across the desk.

It was made out to Bryn Roane in a firm black hand.

There were a great many zeros.

"What is this?"

"A thank-you. For your trouble," Alvin said.

"My trouble."

I looked at the figure.

It was more than the clinic cleared in two years.

"Let me be plain," Alvin said, and folded his hands. "I'm very fond of you. I've known your family for years. Your father pulled a colt through a bad night on this ranch in 1998 and I never forgot it."

"He talked about it."

"This is a hard time, and you've been remarkable. I want to make sure you come out of it whole," I said.

"Come out of what?"

He smiled at me.

I had seen that smile on billboards.

"Jude is a good man," he said. "But he's a quiet one, and he isn't going to sit in Austin or Washington making small talk. He'd rather be out on a horse. After the election, he and I both think it's best to let things settle."

I said nothing.

"A short marriage, kindly ended. That's what you agreed to. Of course."

"Of course," I said, in a voice that surprised me.

"And in the spring, when the dust is gone, Wendell will be a different man. He's very sorry, Bryn. He cried on the phone. He wants to make it right, in front of everyone. A second ceremony, small, in the church. The county will love it."

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