I Married a Stranger to Ruin Them novel · Chapter 25 of 32
Chapter 25: Corning
The voicemail ended.
The parking garage was so quiet I could hear a car alarm three floors down.
Matt put the phone back in his pocket.
"Huh," he said.
"Matt."
"Get in the truck. It's a hundred degrees in here."
"Matt, that's Corning."
"I know what it is."
"That's the best glass museum in the world, and they called you."
"They called a guy they saw on the news for half a minute." He opened my door wider. "Get in, lady. Your ankles are swelling. I can see them from here."
I got in.
He didn't start the truck right away.
He sat with his hands on the wheel, looking at the concrete pillar in front of us.
His face was doing something I'd never seen it do.
It looked young.
"Your dad ever get a call like that?" I said.
"Once. Nineteen ninety-one. He said no." Matt started the engine. "He talked about it till he died. Almost as much as the 1994 mold."
We drove home with the windows down.
He didn't bring it up again.
So I did, at dinner, because somebody had to.
"You should go," I said.
His mother put down the serving spoon.
Carrie looked from me to him like it was a tennis match.
"I'm not talking about this at the table," Matt said.
"Then we'll talk about it after."
"Fine."
He talked about it after, in the yard, by the willow, with the river going by brown and slow in the heat.
"I'm not going," he said.
"It's one year."
"It's one year starting in January. He's due in October." He held up three fingers.
"So I leave you with a three-month-old baby, the crew, a furnace and your whole company, and I go make vases for tourists in New York."
"It's not vases for tourists. It's the best furnace in the country. She said so."
"I like my furnace."
"Your furnace is from 1961."
"That's why I like it."
"Matt, I'm serious."
"So am I." He turned to face me. "I'll go if you come."
"I can't come. Glasshouse only goes in Ashbaugh glass. I said that to the biggest buyer in America on my wedding night."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of I Married a Stranger to Ruin Them are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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