The Seat They Never Saved and the Offer I Finally Took novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Lacey Alone

Lacey was sitting in the back booth of a coffee shop in Canal Park, with a pink scarf wound twice around her neck and no makeup on.

She had taken the early bus from Minneapolis.

She looked about fifteen.

I sat down across from her in my mother's parka and didn't order anything.

"Thank you for coming," she said.

"Say what you called to say."

"He told me he'd bought it for me." Her voice shook. "In August. He put it on my finger in the car and said, don't tell Lena, it's a surprise for her, but I want you to try it on."

"And you wore it for two months."

"He said you'd never miss it. He said you hardly even wore jewelry."

"It was my grandmother's wedding ring."

"I know that now." She pressed her fingers to her eyes. "I knew it before. I think I knew it the second I saw the inside, and I didn't read it, because then I'd have had to stop."

That was the first true thing she had said to me in a year.

I let it sit.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you had everything."

"I had a boyfriend who gave my blanket to you."

"You had someone who showed up for you. That woman at the gate, the one with the book, she looked at me like she could see right through." Lacey laughed, wet and awful. "I've been looked at like that all my life. Pretty, sweet, little Lacey. Somebody always has to carry her."

"You let them."

"It was easy." She dropped her hands. "It was so easy, Lena. You cried at my grandfather's funeral and drove four hours. Everyone gives you what you need if you look like you're drowning. I never had to be strong, because you already were."

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