Chapter 20: The Fall

The lake in March is cold enough to stop a man's breath, and Santino came up gasping.

Rowan and Beckett pulled him out by the arms.

He lay on the boards in his good white shirt with water running off him, coughing, and one of his shoes was gone.

I stood over him with the velvet box in my hand.

Nobody on the lawn said a word.

The tent lights shone on the wet planks, and on the ledger still glowing on the canvas behind us.

"You," Santino said to Bailey, through chattering teeth. "You said she'd never find out."

Bailey turned on him.

"I said no such thing!"

"You made the group! You gave it the name!"

"You told me the cabin was your family's! You told me I'd have a ring by spring, and I got a freezer bag of Tegan's grandmother's jewelry!"

"You were going to say yes!"

"I'd have said yes to a man who owned something!"

The words hung on the cold air.

On the lawn, Bailey's father had taken a step forward, and her mother had both hands over her face.

"Bailey," her father said. It was the first thing I'd heard him say.

"Dad..."

"Get in the car."

"Daddy, it was a joke, it was..."

"Get in the car," he said again, without raising his voice. "Your mother and I are leaving."

Bailey looked at me.

I thought, for one second, she was going to say sorry.

She stood in her camel coat with her hair coming down, and her mouth worked, and all that came out was, "She did this to me."

"No," I said. "You did."

Her father took her elbow.

She went across the lawn between her parents, and nobody made room for her, and nobody spoke.

At the edge of the lights she turned her head.

Rowan was standing by the riser with his hand on the small of my back.

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