My Stepmother Sold the Farm, So I Married the Man Who Left novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: Waiting at the Bus Stop

By Sunday the whole county knew we were married, and half of it had decided how long we'd last.

After the service, the church ladies herded us down to the basement for the potluck.

There were eleven kinds of hotdish on the long tables, and a tray of Hilda's lefse rolled with butter and sugar.

Nels wore his clean shirt with the bandage showing at the cuff, and Hilda's husband's ring on his left hand.

Every woman over sixty touched his sleeve as she passed.

"You look thin, Nels," one said.

"You need a decent breakfast," said another.

"He's had my lefse," Hilda announced, from behind the coffee urn. "He's fine."

I stood at the end of the line with a paper plate and a plastic fork.

Nels stood behind me, so close that I felt the warmth of his chest through my coat.

He had not moved to the other side of the room all morning.

I kept noticing.

At the front of the basement, Delores sat with the pastor's wife, wearing her gray church suit.

Travis came in late, in his good hat, and he went to the pastor's podium and tapped a spoon on a water glass.

"Folks," he said. "A word, if I could."

The room turned.

"We're all family here," Travis said. "And I think a family ought to know what it's welcoming. My new brother-in-law came home after six years. Where'd he go?"

"Travis," Delores said, mildly. "Not today."

"I only think people ought to know." He took off his hat and held it against his chest. "The morning after Haakon's funeral, my sister sat on the bench at the bus stop on Main Street. Four hours, in her black dress. Waiting on him to say goodbye."

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