My Husband Demanded a Paternity Test over Our Daughter's Red Hair, So I Left Him an Empty House novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: Three Weekends of Lumber
The woman from Children Services came on Monday, opened our refrigerator, counted the smoke detectors, and wrote "unfounded" on a form.
Daniel called that night. I told him what his mother had said by the vending machines, every word, including the last line.
He was quiet so long I checked the screen.
"She told me to ask Rory," I said. "So ask him. Don't ask me what he'll say."
"I will," he said. "Not on the phone."
He didn't mention it again, and neither did I.
On Thursday it rained.
Daniel stood on the shop porch at four o'clock with water running off his jacket, and June in his arms under the awning.
Kate had taken the porch chairs inside to keep them dry.
"Thirty minutes," I said. "Under the awning."
"Yes."
"You're soaked."
"I'm fine."
June spit up on his collar, a long, warm, white streak, and he laughed out loud.
It was the first time I'd heard him laugh since the delivery room.
"Okay," I said. "Come up. The kitchen only. I'll find you a towel."
I led him up the back stairs and handed him a dish towel, and went to get a clean burp cloth from the bedroom.
When I came back he wasn't in the kitchen.
He was standing in the doorway to the living room, with June on his shoulder and the towel hanging from his hand.
The crib stood against the far wall under the window.
The sheets were the yellow ones Kate had picked.
The mobile of felt birds turned slowly in the heat from the radiator.
"That's my crib," Daniel said.
"Yes."
"That's the one I built."
"Yes."
He didn't raise his voice. That was worse.
"Three weekends," he said. "I bought the lumber and the miter box, and I cut every rail by hand, because my dad's saw was in the garage, and I wanted to use his."
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