He Waited for Fifteen Years novel · Chapter 6 of 48
Chapter 6: The Toast
Nicholas's grandmother arrived on Saturday at six with a cane she didn't use and a fur coat she refused to take off.
She was eighty-two and about five feet tall.
She looked at our front hall, then at me.
"You're smaller than your pictures."
"So are you," I said.
She barked out a laugh and took my arm instead of her grandson's.
"Good. He needs someone who talks back. He only argues with planets."
By seven the dining room was full.
Forty people at three tables under my grandmother's chandelier.
Bryant's father had taken the head of the second table.
Bryant sat beside him in a gray suit.
Shelby was on his other side, in white again.
Russell Hartley came in last.
He was broad and silver-haired, sunburned at the back of the neck, in pressed jeans and a navy sport coat.
His belt buckle was a slab of turquoise the size of a coaster.
He shook my father's hand with both of his.
"It's been too long."
"Fifteen years," my father said.
Russell smiled.
Then he crossed the room to Nicholas.
I watched Nicholas's right hand.
It stayed loose at his side until the last second. Then it came up and shook.
"Son," Russell said. "Good to see you out of those mountains."
"Mr. Hartley."
"I mean it. Your daddy would've been proud."
The soup came and went.
I couldn't taste it.
Nicholas's grandmother ate hers steadily, watching Russell over her spoon.
Before the main course, Bryant's father tapped his glass.
"Our guest of honor from Houston would like to say a few words."
Russell stood.
He lifted his wine.
"I knew this young man's father," he said. "We had our differences over business. But he was a hard, honest man, and I was sorry as anything when that road took him."
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