Chapter 23: Come In, You're Early

On Thursday, Leander was standing at the bottom of Maeve's steps at twenty past one.

I saw him through the kitchen window.

It was sleeting, a thin gray slant of it, and he had no hat.

He stood with his hands at his sides and his eyes on the front door.

"He's been out there since one," Maeve said, over my shoulder. "I watched him get out of the car and straighten his tie."

"He's forty minutes early."

"By his own watch. He says the visit is at two."

At the table, Orin looked up from the baby's bottle he was pretending to fix.

"He's keeping the rule," he said. "The one he made. He thinks that if he waits it out he's paying for something."

"He is paying for something."

"Not like this."

I watched the sleet gather in Leander's dark hair.

Six Thursdays he had come, and six times he had stood on those steps until the exact minute.

He had never once rung the bell early.

He had never once asked to be let in out of the weather.

I had always let it be, because it felt like the first honest thing he had ever done.

Today I felt something else.

"Maeve," I said. "What time is it?"

She looked at her wrist.

"One forty-one."

"Thank you."

I opened the front door.

The cold came in around my ankles.

Leander looked up, and his face went hopeful and then careful.

"It's not two," he said.

"No."

"I'll wait. I'm early. It's the rule."

"I changed the rule," I said.

He stood still.

"Nobody waits outside in the rain," I said. "Nobody's late. Nobody's seat goes to anyone else. Come in, Leander. You're early."

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