The Seat They Never Saved and the Offer I Finally Took novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Truth in the Car

Tobias's gray Subaru was parked at the back of Tavola's lot, under the one light that still worked.

I got into the passenger seat and shut the door hard.

Ivy stayed on the sidewalk with her arms crossed and watched us through the windshield.

She didn't try to come along.

Tobias didn't start the engine.

"Tell me," I said. "Start at the funeral, and don't skip anything."

He kept his eyes on the steering wheel.

"I was there," he said. "I stood in the back row for the whole four hours."

"I never saw you."

"You were looking at the floor. I left before the line got to me."

"Why?"

"Because I'd just signed a contract in Rotterdam, and I was leaving in six weeks, and I didn't know how to say that to you."

I waited.

"Connor came with me that day," he said. "He was my roommate for four years and my friend for ten. I introduced you to him in the funeral home parking lot."

I had forgotten that.

I remembered a tall man in a dark coat holding a door for my mother.

"He said he'd look in on you," Tobias said. "I said I'd cover whatever it cost. Flowers, dinners, a ride when your car died. I wanted you to have someone, Lena, that's all."

"You wanted me to have a babysitter."

"I wanted you not to be alone."

"You picked a man to do it, and you didn't ask me."

"No."

"You didn't ask my mother, or my father's doctor, or me."

"I didn't ask anybody." His voice was very even. "I decided. I was wrong to."

I stared out at the lot.

My hands were shaking, so I sat on them.

"How much?" I said.

"Two thousand a month for the first two years. A thousand a month since I came home."

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