They Canceled My Ticket, I Canceled Them novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Take It Back

Josh came back in an hour, as he had promised.

The screen door banged, and he stood in the kitchen with his hair wet from the lake and his eyes red.

Nobody had moved from where he left them.

Lacey sat at the table with her ring hand on top of her phone.

"There you are," she said softly. "Come sit. We'll talk like adults."

"I'm talking right here."

He looked at the ring on her finger.

"I'd like that back," he said.

"No."

"It was my grandmother's stone."

"Then take it off my hand, in front of your brother." She held it out, palm down, and smiled. "Go on."

Josh looked at the hand for a long moment, and he did not touch it.

"Keep it," he said. "Sell it. I'm not taking anything off you today. I'm taking my name off the wedding."

The smile stayed, but her eyes went flat.

"You don't mean that."

"Lacey, I read the screenshot four times. I stood on the dock and I thought about what I knew." He pulled out a chair and did not sit in it. "You told me my brother would never come near this house. I believed you for nine years."

"Josh."

"I thought he was angry at our dad. He thought nobody here wanted him back." His voice broke on the last word. "You let both of us think it."

Wes watched his brother and said nothing at all.

Josh took out his phone and tapped for a while with his thumb.

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