One Tent My Forbidden Stepbrother novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Sunday at the House

The house was a long white farmhouse on a street of maples, and the porch light was on when they pulled into the drive.

It was four in the afternoon, and bright.

Perry looked at the bulb burning yellow over the front steps, and then at Blaine, who was looking at it too.

Neither of them said a word.

Dad cut the engine.

"Home," he said, and for once he didn't make a joke of it.

The dining table was set for three.

Perry noticed it from the doorway.

The neighbor, who had a key and a soft heart, had laid it: three plates, three glasses, three folded cloth napkins.

And at the far end, by the window, a fourth chair pushed in against the wall, with nothing in front of it.

Blaine stood in the doorway.

It was her chair, the one with the faded green cushion she had sewn herself.

He had not been in this room since the funeral.

"Sit anywhere," Dad said, from the kitchen. "Roast is in at five."

Blaine walked the length of the room.

He did not sit in her chair.

He pulled out the one beside it and lowered himself into it slowly, with his hand flat on the edge of her cushion.

Perry sat across from him.

They looked at each other.

The old wall clock ticked.

"She'd tell me to move my elbow," Blaine said finally, and moved it off the table.

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