Chapter 24: Twelve Seats

Emme's POV

On Sunday at seven, the dining room table had every leaf in it, and every one of the twelve chairs had a name card.

I walked the length of it with a pencil, checking my list against the cards.

Mason walked behind me with the other copy, and we did not disagree about a single seat.

That was a first, and I made a note of it in the ledger.

The guests came in through the front door, one at a time, and the cook took their coats.

Dad arrived in the funeral suit, with a casserole dish nobody had asked for.

Godfrey stood at the head of the table with his hands behind his back.

He had asked to sit at the foot, by the door, and I had told him that was my chair.

The woman in the lilac hat came with her clipboard and put it under her chair.

The woman from the consignment shop on Alder Street came in her best cardigan, and she told me the hem had held.

Dad's neighbor came, and the girl from the coat check, and the valet who had parked the truck by the dumpsters.

"It was the best parking spot on the property," he told Dad, and Dad shook his hand.

My boss from the plumbing-supply company came last, in a tie, looking at the chandelier.

"Do I get a raise for this?" he said.

"No," I said. "But you get the fish."

Lydia came down the stairs at five past seven, in pale blue, with no jewelry.

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