His Favorite Shirt novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Pancakes

At eight the next morning Nolan's mother put a stack of pancakes on the lodge kitchen table and told everyone to sit.

Posy was in a borrowed lodge sweatshirt that came to her knees, with her hair in a tangle.

She had slept in the end cottage, in my bed, with Brielle in the chair beside her all night.

Nobody had told her anything yet.

Brielle sat across from her now in yesterday's cream dress, with her eyes swollen.

Nolan stood at the stove with a spatula, burning a fourth pancake, and I stood beside him with my hand on his back.

"Posy," Brielle said. "We need to tell you something."

Posy looked at her plate and then at the syrup.

"Is it about the lake?"

"It's about who loves you."

"You and Daddy."

"Yes," Brielle said. Her voice shook. "Daddy is the one who raised you. He taught you to swim, and he will always be your daddy."

Heath had not come in yet.

He was waiting on the porch, at Brielle's request, in borrowed jeans and a lodge sweatshirt.

His own clothes were still drying on a line behind the laundry.

"And there is another man," Brielle said. "He is also your father."

Posy put down her fork.

She turned her whole body around in the chair and looked at Nolan.

Nolan set the spatula on the counter and came to the table and crouched down by her chair.

"That's me," he said. "I didn't know until yesterday. I'm sorry I wasn't here."

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