He Bought My Nights in the Dark, and I Hated Him by Day novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Market Street
The Syttende Mai parade came down NW Market Street at noon, with every flag in Ballard flying over it.
I walked in the front rank in my grandmother's bunad, with the heavy silver brooch at my throat.
The black wool was let out at the waist, and the embroidered hem brushed my shoes at every step.
My mother walked on my left in her own bunad, with her chin high.
Liv walked behind us in Dad's gray sweater, because she had refused to wear the dress, and nobody had the nerve to argue.
Behind her came the Mary Rae's crew in their good jackets, and the old skipper, and half the dock in red, white and blue.
A brass band played at the head of the line.
The street was packed to the curbs with people holding paper flags.
Children sat on their fathers' shoulders.
People called out my mother's name, and mine, and some of them called out Henrik's.
He walked on my right in his dark suit and the tie my mother had made him wear.
He kept his eyes ahead, and his hand hung at his side, an inch from mine.
I had hated the man that hand belonged to, and I had loved the hand in the dark before I knew whose it was.
I had never once held it in the street.
The curb on both sides was full of faces I had known all my life.
I knew exactly what they had said about me in January, and what they were looking at now.
I took his hand.
I laced my fingers through his, the left one, with the short finger and the twine, and I raised it a little so the whole street could see.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Bought My Nights in the Dark, and I Hated Him by Day are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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