Five Years Outside Their Photos, So I Finally Walked Out Forever novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Sunday Supper

Willa walks into the Bradlee dinner on her own terms and demands her money and her face on the card; Colleen sets a public price.

The invitation came at four o'clock, in Colleen's own words, forwarded by Gavin.

"Sunday supper at six. Willa may apologize to the family, and we will consider the matter closed."

Teagan read it over my shoulder while she stirred pasta.

"Consider the matter closed," she said. "She wrote that like a verdict."

"I'm going."

"Of course you are." She put the spoon down. "I'm driving, and I'm waiting in the truck with the engine running, and if you're not out in twenty minutes I'm coming in with a ladle."

"Why a ladle?"

"It's what I have."

I wore my own clothes, the green sweater my grandmother had knitted me and the jeans I'd bought on the day I got my library job.

Mustard watched me from the bed with great disapproval.

The Bradlee dining room had a table for twelve and a chandelier shaped like a ship's wheel.

Colleen sat at the head, with her pearls on.

Gavin sat on her right, in a clean white shirt, with a glass of red wine in front of him and his best wounded face on.

Sabrina sat across from him, with her phone propped against the water pitcher.

The red dot was blinking.

"Do you mind?" Sabrina asked sweetly. "For the family archive."

"I don't," I said. "Keep it running."

I sat in the empty chair at the foot of the table, the one nobody ever used.

Colleen folded her napkin into a triangle.

"Willa. You embarrassed this family in front of forty guests."

"I did."

"You embarrassed Gavin, who has been nothing but patient."

"He's been something," I agreed.

"Then let's hear it."

Everyone waited.

Gavin reached down the table and laid his hand near mine without touching it.

"Babe, she just needs to hear you say you're sorry. Then we'll go home, and I'll make you tea, and this whole weekend never happened."

I'd have bought that, a year ago.

I might have bought it a week ago.

I looked at his hand and thought about how many times he'd used that exact voice on me.

"I'm not here to apologize," I said. "I came with two things."

Colleen raised one pencil-thin eyebrow.

"The first is sixty thousand dollars," I said.

Nobody breathed.

"My grandmother left me that money. I put every cent of it into Bradlee Marine the year Gavin and I got married. He said it was ours. I'd like it back."

Gavin laughed.

It was a small, practiced sound, the laugh of a man who'd been caught with his hand in his own pocket.

"Willa, that was a family investment. It's in the slips. It's in the new dock."

"Then you can write me a check from the dock."

"It's not liquid, babe."

"You've sold eleven boats since March," I said. "I did the library fundraiser's books, and the harbor committee posts the sales."

Sabrina's smile faltered.

Colleen set down her fork very slowly.

"The money was a gift," she said.

"It was a loan. There's a receipt." I took out my phone. "I photographed it the day I transferred it, because my grandmother raised me to."

That was true.

I had also forgotten about it for five years, until Teagan reminded me at midnight.

Gavin's grin slipped by about an inch.

"The second thing," I said, before anyone could answer.

"Oh, there's more," Sabrina murmured to her camera.

"I want my face on the family card."

The room went very quiet.

"The harbor committee card," I said. "The Christmas one. The portrait in the hall. I'm a Bradlee by marriage, and I'd like to be in the picture."

Colleen studied me for a long moment.

I'd seen that look on her at every church supper I'd ever attended.

It was the look she gave a stain on a tablecloth she was deciding whether to bleach.

"You want to be seen," she said.

"I want to be in the frame."

"Then let me be generous." She dabbed the corner of her mouth. "The Founders' Day portrait is the first Saturday in June. The whole harbor attends the unveiling."

"I know."

"Stand in that portrait if you want to, Willa. But first you will apologize, in front of the harbor, for what you did to this family on my birthday."

Gavin looked relieved.

"That's fair," he said. "Babe, that's more than fair."

"And the money?" I asked.

"After," Colleen said. "We'll discuss it after."

It was the same trick as the photographs, and I recognized it now.

After, and later, and just this once.

I put my phone back in my bag.

I stood and pushed my chair in neatly, the way I always did.

"I'll be at the unveiling," I said.

"Wonderful," Colleen said.

"I'll be in the picture, too."

"If you apologize."

"I'll be in the picture, Colleen."

Gavin said, "Willa," in the voice of a man talking to a spooked horse.

Sabrina's phone was still recording.

I looked straight into it, and then I walked out through the front door and down the porch steps.

Teagan's truck was at the curb with the engine running and the radio on.

She leaned across and pushed the passenger door open.

"Eighteen minutes," she said. "Did you win?"

"I don't know yet."

"Did you cry?"

"No."

"Then you won something."

I climbed in.

My phone buzzed, and I didn't expect to know the number, but I did.

A new text from Elias Bradlee, who had never once had my number.

"I'm sorry to message you like this. I got it from the family directory. Can I ask you one thing?"

I stared at it.

Then three dots appeared, and a second line arrived.

"Did you actually say you'd stand in the portrait?"

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