My Husband Played Stranger, So I Took Off the Ring novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Ask Me at Homecoming

They moved my mother out of intensive care on Thursday and back to her own room at Maple Court on Saturday.

She was grumpy, and she asked for her lipstick.

That was how I knew she was coming back.

Nate came home from the diner after midnight that Saturday with dish soap up to his elbows and the smell of fryer oil in his hair.

I was sitting at the table with the long white envelope in front of me.

I had put a lamp on beside it, so he'd see it as soon as he walked in.

He saw it.

He stopped in the doorway with his jacket half off.

"Roxy."

"Sit down."

He sat across from me and put both hands flat on the table, the way he did when he was waiting to be told something awful.

I slid the envelope to the middle of the wood.

"I've been thinking about this since Monday," I said. "I thought about it in the hospital, and on the bus, and in the shower, which is where I do my best crying."

"Okay."

"I'm not signing it."

His whole body went still.

"I'm not tearing it up either."

"Okay."

"I'm not saying yes, and I'm not saying no." I took a breath. "You hid things from me for two years because you thought you knew what I could stand. I'm not going to do that to you. So I'll say it plainly. I'm not ready."

"I can wait."

"I know you can. You've gotten very good at it." I looked at the envelope. "Homecoming is in three weeks. Ask me again then."

He raised his eyes.

"Ask you what?"

"Ask me whether I want to stay married to you."

"And you'll tell me."

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