The Eight Year Ledger novel · Chapter 30 of 32

Chapter 30: Third Night

I put my hand on top of his, on the lid of the paint can.

"I love you too," I said.

His chest lifted, a slow grin breaking through his beard.

"Since when?" he said.

"The envelopes. Christmas Eve. JANUARY through DECEMBER."

"That long."

"I didn't say it because I was still married."

"And now?"

"Now I'm not."

He leaned down over the paint can and kissed me, once, slow, right there by the color chips.

From aisle four, a voice yelled, "I KNEW IT."

Then the label maker started clicking again, very fast.

"She's labeling something," I said.

"She's labeling us," Beau said. "We'll find out where."

We found out at noon.

The bin at the end of aisle four said DAD + KRISTEN in black tape, on top of the old label that said 3/4" WASHERS.

Beau left it.

We painted my bedroom that afternoon with the windows open.

He did the edges, because he had the steadier hand.

I did the rolling, because I liked watching the old wall go under.

The green went on darker than the chip and dried lighter, the way he'd promised it would.

By two the walls were done.

At two-fifteen the Buick pulled into the driveway.

Gabe got out with his backpack and came straight upstairs to inspect.

"It's the ledger color," he said.

"Lighter."

"It's still the ledger color."

He stood in the empty room and turned around once.

"How was it?" I asked.

"Fine." He thought about it. "Grandma made him do the dishes. He did them wrong, and she made him do them again."

"Did you have a good time?"

"We skipped rocks at the reservoir. He didn't skip any good ones."

He went to his room to pack his sleeping bag.

The room parent's twins were turning nine.

The party was a sleepover, eight kids in a basement, and the invitation said it ended at ten in the morning, "God willing."

Dottie was going too.

The room parent picked them both up at five with a minivan full of balloons.

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