My Stepfather and His Friends novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Home

Warren didn't say a word on the drive home.

The others had peeled away at the church gate, Graham to his office, Owen to a late surgery, Caleb with a hand on my shoulder and one low word: "Proud."

Warren drove with both hands on the wheel and his eyes fixed straight ahead.

When we got to the house, he walked into the den and stood at the window with his back to me.

I closed the door.

For the first time in my life, I closed that door on a Sunday afternoon.

"I should have said something," he said.

"You moved. I stopped you."

"I stood there." His voice was thick. "She called you a disgrace and I stood in a row of chairs like a fence post. Fourteen months, Tessa. I let everyone in that church think you'd moved in with me because you had nowhere else to go."

"I did have nowhere else to go."

"That's not the point."

"Warren."

"You were the one who answered her. You stood up there alone and told two hundred people what your mother asked of me, and I've been the one with her letter in a drawer."

I crossed the room.

"Look at me."

He turned.

His face was wrecked, and I put my hands on it, and felt his jaw working under my palms.

"You didn't fail me," I said. "I wanted to do it. It was mine to say."

"I'm supposed to be the one who."

"Protects me?"

"Yes."

"Then protect me now."

His eyes searched mine.

"From what?"

"From you thinking you owe me something. Sit down."

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