The One Who Waited novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: What Luke Did

Luke was waiting up when I got back to the loft.

He was at the long table with a cup of tea and a pencil, drawing something on graph paper.

The dog was asleep across his boots.

He took one look at my face and put the pencil down.

"Somebody already sent me the video," he said. "The welder. Then the painter. Then my mother, somehow. You were very good."

"Derek followed me out."

"I figured."

I didn't take off my coat.

I stood at the end of the table.

"He says he has the police report. He says he has three guys who were in that bar. He says if I marry you, he tells everyone what you did in Ithaca."

Luke didn't move.

"What did I do in Ithaca, Merry?"

"You started a fight."

"Is that what you remember?"

"It's what happened."

"Is it what you remember?"

I opened my mouth.

I remembered the bar. A Thursday in August, sticky floors, too loud. Derek three beers past his limit.

I remembered the table of local guys by the pool table.

I remembered shouting, and glass, and turning around to grab Derek's arm.

Then the hot, wet slam in my back.

Then the floor.

"I didn't see," I said. "I had my back to it."

"I know. I saw your back."

He said it quietly.

He got up and went to the window and stood with his hands in his pockets, looking at the river.

"Derek threw first," he said. "A full bottle. Because one of those guys said something about you when you walked to the bathroom. He threw it from the hip, like a frat boy. It hit their table and broke. One of them threw one back. You stepped in front of him."

"Stop."

"And Derek ran. Out the side door. Before you hit the floor."

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