Chapter 10: The Proposal

Tillie's POV

I woke to a car door slamming and my mother's voice on the lawn.

"Tillie! Tillie Dougherty, come out here."

I pulled on a cardigan over my pajamas and went down the stairs two at a time.

Phyllis stood in the front hall, already dressed, looking out the side window.

Giles stood behind her with his jaw set.

"They've brought the pastor," she said. "The pastor, and flowers."

"Let me handle it," I said.

"Tillie."

"Please. I'm the one he priced."

I opened the front door.

The morning was cold and bright.

Dean stood at the bottom of the porch steps in a gray suit, holding a bouquet of red roses.

My mother was next to him in her church coat, and a man in a clerical collar stood a respectful distance behind.

Across the street, a neighbor had come out in her bathrobe to water her lawn.

She wasn't watering anything.

"Tillie," Dean said. His voice was soft and warm and pitched to carry. "Thank God. I've been up all night."

"You look it."

"I came to say I'm sorry. Everyone makes mistakes."

"Tillie, honey," my mother said. "Pastor was kind enough to come. We want to settle this like a family."

"We're not a family."

"Reverend," my mother said, and the pastor cleared his throat.

"Tillie. A quarrel between a couple is best resolved in prayer, not on a stranger's lawn."

"Pastor, did you pray for the woman priced at one cent in front of the whole town?"

He opened his mouth and closed it.

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