Chapter 24: The Banner

The wedding was in April, on the roof of Kate's building, at six in the evening.

It had taken five months to get everyone onto a plane.

Trevor came first.

He climbed the four flights on his own two feet, stopping on each landing to joke about his sister's legs and not his own.

His color was good. His hair had grown back thick and sandy.

He wore a plain blue suit and carried a hospital bracelet in his pocket, which he said was for luck.

Brooke came behind him with her arm through his.

She had a new job at a charity that arranged rides to dialysis clinics, and she had told Kate on the phone that she wanted no credit and no camera.

"I turned off every page," she said. "I only kept the one with the apology."

Kate had hugged her.

My father came up last, slowly, with a suitcase and a bag of Ohio coffee for Kate.

He lived in Hannah's spare room now, in Columbus, and he had started to go for walks.

He put his hand flat on the roof's warm tiles and looked at the city.

"I never traveled," he said. "Your mother said it was a waste."

"You're traveling now."

"I am." He grinned, wide and astonished, a grin I had never seen on him. "Where do I sit?"

There were thirty chairs in rows, with a white arch at the front and the river going gold behind it.

Howard stood under the arch in his rumpled charcoal suit and his half-moon glasses, holding a single sheet of paper.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Gave My Wedding to My Brother, Now They Need Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.