Perfect Husband Act: Now My Wife's Sorry novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Applause
Audrey's hand closed on mine before I had taken another step.
"Got you," she said.
Her face was wet, and her fingers were crushing mine through the gauze.
"Don't let go again."
"Not for the rest of my life."
We walked to table one with the room parting around us.
Her mother was already in her chair, in the green silk she had bought for Audrey's wedding.
She took my free hand under the tablecloth and held it on her knee.
At the next table over sat the six people who had agreed to come: the old man in the Marine cap, the woman in scrubs, the heavyset man and the receptionist.
Six chairs.
All six were pale, and none of them were eating.
Across the ballroom, behind a curtain at the back, I knew Susie was crouched at the sound board beside a man with a very healthy appendix.
The waiters cleared the salad.
The chair of the Chamber board stood and made a speech about community.
Then Travis Bannon walked up to the podium.
He stood in the light with his plaque in both hands, a handsome man in a black tuxedo, with his eyes already wet.
"I want to thank my mother," he said, "who raised me for twelve years, and the Hartigan family, who raised me for the rest."
The room made a sound of warm approval.
"I have spent my life helping people through the darkest seasons," Travis said. "Illness. Loss. Debt. The things nobody wants to talk about."
At the next table over, the woman in scrubs began to tremble.
Audrey's mother's hand tightened on mine.
Travis finished to a standing ovation.
He lifted the plaque, bowed his head, and waited for the noise to die.
"One more piece of business, among old friends," he said. "One of my oldest friends, Audrey Hartigan, has asked me to announce a gift. Audrey? Will you join me?"
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