Never Divorce a Wife Who Loves You Deeply novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: Trash Bags

"Scott," I said.

He kept looking at the window.

"Did you know? When you gave it to me?"

"It was a good ring," he said. "It seemed like a waste."

His mother's hand stayed out, palm up, perfectly steady.

The ring was tight after two days of IV fluids.

I had to twist it over the knuckle, and it scraped the skin, and I didn't make a sound.

I put it in her palm.

She closed her fingers on it and dropped it in the pocket of her cardigan.

"Thank you," she said. "Joey, say goodbye."

Joey didn't. He was already out the door.

Scott stopped by the bed on his way out.

For a second I thought he was going to say something real.

"A week," he said instead, and tapped the envelope under his arm.

On Friday they discharged me.

The nurse wheeled me down to the lobby with my crutches across my lap and a plastic bag of hospital socks and pain pills.

"Who's picking you up, hon?"

I had texted Scott that morning.

He'd answered at nine.

"Mom's got a church thing and I'm on a site. Get a ride."

I had forty dollars in my wallet and a phone with a cracked screen.

"I'll call a cab," I said.

"You don't have to."

The nurse nodded toward the sliding doors.

A gray pickup was parked in the loading zone with the flashers on.

Cal was leaning on the passenger door in jeans and a faded fire department T-shirt.

"He called the floor every day to ask how you were," the nurse said. "He wasn't family, so I couldn't tell him anything. Yesterday I told him anyway."

Cal came in and took the crutches from my lap without asking.

"Hi, Robin."

"You didn't have to come."

"I know." He held the wheelchair steady while I stood up. "Where are we going?"

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