Chapter 7: The Ex Walks In

Dinner that night was served at one long table under the lodge's rafters, with candles in jars and cameras at both ends.

Renata had seated Dale across from me.

She had seated his new wife on his left, in a low-cut red dress and a smile.

Ray sat on my right.

Under the table, his knee pressed against mine and stayed there.

"Everyone," Renata said, tapping a glass, "we have a special guest tonight, ahead of schedule, because he just couldn't wait to see his wife."

"Ex-wife soon enough," Dale called, and laughed, and the whole table laughed politely.

I did not.

He stood up with his glass, in his good quarter-zip, with his teeth gleaming.

"I'd like to propose a toast," he said, "to Lorna."

I put down my fork.

"Thirty-four years," he said. "The best wife a man ever had."

"She cooked, she cleaned, she raised our girl, and she never once complained. Which is why I owe her this."

He spread his hands.

"Some people just can't keep up with the world, and that is no one's fault. Lorna, I want you to know I forgive you."

A strange quiet ran down the table.

Eighteen people had heard the word forgive, and not one of them knew what I'd been forgiven for.

"Forgive me for what?" I asked.

"For making it so hard," Dale said, smiling for the camera.

His new wife nodded sadly.

"He's so generous," she said to the woman beside her. "Everybody says so."

I stayed very still.

Ray's hand had found my knee under the table and tightened once, steadily.

"Before we eat," Dale said, "Lor, I brought you a little something."

He drew a folded paper from his pocket and slid it across the table.

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