Chapter 24: Read Every Line

The dock still smelled of new pine, because Russ had spent two weeks of evenings replacing the boards.

I found him at the end of it at sunset with a folded piece of paper in his hand.

The lake was gold.

A loon floated out near the buoy and dived and did not come up.

"I made you something," he said.

"You made me a dock."

"This is something else."

He held out the paper.

I took it, and he stepped back with his hands in his pockets.

It was one page, typed on my grandfather's old Smith Corona, which he had found in the loft closet.

I sat down on the edge of the dock with my feet over the water.

I read the first line.

Russ Prewitt will live at the lake house for as long as Ruby Tillman wants him there.

I read the second.

Ruby can end this on any day, for any reason, with no notice, and he will pack the truck.

The third line said: Russ will never sign anything for Ruby, and he will never hold a paper back from her.

I looked up.

He was watching the loon.

The fourth line said: Russ will tell her the truth.

Under it, smaller: Even when he is a coward about it, he will tell her late rather than never.

I laughed out loud.

The fifth said: Ruby keeps the lake house, the company, the shares and her own name.

The sixth said: Nobody here is asked to be a wife.

I read the last line twice.

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