Chapter 17: The Phone

Cal's POV

Deborah's smile held for two full seconds before she gave in.

"Of course, dear," she said. "Say whatever is on your heart."

She handed Clarissa the cordless microphone, sure that nothing could go wrong in front of her friends.

I stayed in my chair, because I had promised.

Clarissa had asked me in the car to let her walk up alone.

"If you stand next to me, they'll see a couple," she had said. "I want them to see a witness."

So I sat among the nurses and watched her cross the floor in the green dress.

She went past the lectern and stopped beside the big screen, where the slideshow was still looping.

A golf tournament slid off it, and Deborah holding the large check slid on.

"Thank you for the forgiveness, Mrs. Aldrich," Clarissa said into the microphone. "I'd like to ask a few questions about the happy news first."

A small sound went through the room.

Dean leaned toward his mother's ear.

"Twenty weeks," Clarissa said. "That's wonderful. When was it, exactly, that you and Dean fell in love?"

"Clare," Haley began, in her hospital voice.

"I'm asking Dean."

Dean's pleasant face did not move.

"After," he said. "After the dinner. When I was at my lowest."

"After the dinner."

"Obviously."

A man at the front table nodded.

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