You've Got Male novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Brunch

The Charleston Yacht Club's dining room had a view of the harbor and a long white table set for thirty.

I wore navy, my mother's pearls, and the most polite smile I owned.

I knew every face at that table.

The commodore, who had taught my father to race.

The bank president's wife.

The parents of six sailing-clinic kids.

Two women from the Barnwell Cup committee, and the old man who lives across the street from my father's house.

Lyle sat at the head with Francine at his right.

He pulled out the chair beside him for me.

"There she is," he said, and kissed my cheek. "My beautiful wife."

I sat, and put my napkin on my lap.

The coffee came.

The eggs came.

Someone passed the biscuits.

Lyle let us eat for twenty minutes, easy and charming, a man at home among friends.

Then he tapped his fork against his glass.

"Friends," he said. "Thank you for coming. I wanted us all together for something hard."

The room went quiet.

"My wife and I have been married four days. I love her very much."

His voice broke, perfectly.

"I owe it to her family, and to Walter's memory, to be honest."

Francine lowered her eyes.

"On our wedding night, Cassidy left me alone in our suite," Lyle said.

"She spent the evening with a man she paid. A hired companion from an agency, for nine hundred dollars."

He drew a folded paper from his jacket and laid it by his plate.

"Her card statement. And this."

He turned his phone around and passed it to the commodore.

I watched the picture travel down the table.

A woman against a car.

A man's hand in her hair.

Faces changed as it passed.

The bank president's wife looked at her coffee.

One of the clinic parents looked at me, very hard, and put the phone down without a word.

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