Chapter 13: The Sign

I looked down the table at my husband.

Dean was looking at the wood.

"Say it," I said.

"Kate." He lifted his head. "It started with Mom. I'll give you that. But I fell for you. You know I did."

"When?"

He opened his mouth, and nothing came out.

Along the back wall a man shifted his boots, and the floor creaked.

I set my father's cushion back on the chair.

I did not sit on it.

"That's enough drama," Constance said. "Sit down, Katherine."

She walked back to the head of the table and took her seat with the arms.

"You signed a management agreement at your father's funeral lunch. Gaffney Management runs this yard for twenty years from that day."

She smiled at the room.

"Fifteen to go. No court in Ohio will undo it, and I will say so to the bank on my way to the car."

"The bank," I said.

"I'll tell them the owner is unwell." She folded her hands. "Gentlemen, payroll goes out on my signature. Next Friday, it will not go out."

A low sound moved along the wall.

Somebody said a word under his breath.

"Think about your mortgages," Constance said. "Think about whose girl you want to follow."

I closed the blue binder and held it against my chest.

My knees were not steady, but my voice was.

"I'm going to go look at my gate," I said.

Nobody moved.

Then the old foreman opened the door and held it for me.

I walked out into the gravel with the October wind in my face.

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