My Husband Timed Our Marriage, So I Ran Out the Clock novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Dinner Table

My parents drove down from Binghamton on Saturday and took me to lunch at a diner near Joy's apartment.

My mother had a casserole in a cooler bag in the back seat.

My father had a thermos of his own coffee, because he did not trust anyone else's.

They had both hugged me for a long time on the sidewalk.

"You look thin," my mother said.

"I look the same."

"You look thin and tired. Joy, doesn't she look thin?"

"She looks like a woman who walked out on a husband," Joy said. "She looks great."

My father said nothing, but he squeezed my shoulder.

We had been in the booth ten minutes, and my mother had just finished telling the waitress that I did not eat enough, when the bell over the door rang.

Stewart walked in.

He wore a navy overcoat and carried a white gift bag with tissue paper sticking out of the top.

I looked at my mother.

My mother looked at the menu.

"Mom."

"He called me," she said, without looking up. "He sounded so sad, Hannah. I only said we'd be here."

Stewart reached the booth and nodded to my father.

"Sir. Mrs. Cafferty." He held out the bag. "I brought something for the house. A bottle of the rye you liked."

"That's kind," my father said.

He did not take it.

Stewart set the bag on the end of the table and slid in beside Joy, who moved over and did not look at him.

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