They Buried My Mother Quietly, So I Married the Son She Saved novel · Chapter 8 of 24
Chapter 8: Second Birthday
The Foundation dinner was held in the hospital atrium, under a glass roof, at round tables with white cloths and a candle on each.
Eighty people came.
Half of them were the families of organ donors.
They wore their good clothes and held framed photographs in their laps, and they looked at Rafe with a hope they could not quite hide.
He stood at the front in a navy suit and said it plainly.
"Fourteen years ago tonight, a stranger gave me a kidney," he said. "I have never learned her name. I come to this dinner every year to say thank you to people who do know theirs. To the ones who gave. And to the ones who stayed."
He raised his glass.
Eighty people raised theirs.
I raised mine too, and my hand did not shake.
I'd had years of practice.
Anselm sat at the head table in a gray suit with a plate untouched in front of him.
He nodded at me once, graciously.
Adelaide had stayed home.
Dr. Osgood had not come.
At the buffet afterward, I stood beside Rafe with a plate in my hand.
A woman in a navy dress was telling him about her son.
He listened with his whole face, and he asked her the boy's name twice so he'd remember it.
I watched his mouth.
When she moved on I leaned close to his ear, so no one could hear but him.
"I've been thinking about what I'm going to do to you when we get home," I said.
His glass stopped halfway to his mouth.
"Megan."
"I'm going to take that jacket off you in the car. I'm going to put my mouth on your neck while your driver watches the road. And then I'm going to get on my knees in the back seat and find out how long you can keep that face."
His breath went out of him.
"You're in a room full of donor families," he said, low.
"I know. Nobody here can hear me, and nothing can happen in this room, and you have to stand here and talk about kidneys."
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