Chapter 4: The Lobby

Tobias stood in the middle of the hospital lobby holding two dozen white roses.

People were stepping around him, nurses with coffee, a man pushing his wife in a wheelchair, a security guard who watched him with his arms folded.

I came out of the elevator with Joanna one step behind me.

"Samantha." He took a step forward. "Thank God. I called your phone all morning."

"I turned it off."

"I want you to come home."

"No."

He looked at Joanna, then at the guard, and lowered his voice.

"Can we talk somewhere that isn't a lobby?"

"You didn't mind the ballroom," Joanna said.

"Joanna, stay out of this."

"It's my lobby. I work here."

Tobias exhaled and turned back to me.

His eyes were red.

Tobias, who had cried at our wedding and at a dog food commercial, did not cry in front of people.

"I made a mistake," he said. "I should have asked you about the week. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Come home, and I'll fix it."

"Fix it how?"

"I'll cancel the lot."

"You can't," I said. "I own the boat. The foundation needs my signature."

"Then sign it over to Brynn and let it go." He said it quickly. "It's a week, Samantha. It's a week out of a whole life."

"It's my father's boat."

"It's a boat."

"He built her in a rented shed," I said, and my voice shook. "He taught me to tie a bowline on her deck."

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