Exiled for Saying No, I Came Back and Took the Boss's Chair novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: St. Joseph's Day

On the nineteenth of March the Holy Rosary hall smelled of bread from the doors to the stage.

Three hundred loaves stood in baskets down the long table, each with its cross cut in the crust.

Nonna and I and the five old butchers had baked them all night.

The whole North End sat down to eat under the paper banners, with the children on the floor and the old men along the walls.

I wore the black jeans.

I had not washed them.

On the left hip, faint and white, you could still see four fingers and a thumb.

Ronan stood at the back wall with a plate of bread in his hand.

It was the same wall where he had stood eleven years before and watched a girl say no.

I could feel him there without turning around.

At the head of the table stood a tall carved chair of black oak.

It had my father's cushion on it.

The seven of the Table sat on either side of it.

There were three grandmothers in lace, and four old men in their good suits with their hats on their knees.

Nonna had put me at the foot, the guests' end, near the door.

My uncle Ignazio rose from the first seat on the right.

He had put on his gray suit and his black wool overcoat, and he buttoned the coat before he spoke.

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