His Favorite Shirt novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Nine Months Back

"August," Nolan said.

He did not look away from the screen.

"The last three weeks of it. I was with her every day."

I waited.

He pulled the laptop closer and looked at the left eye, and then at the canoe frame, and at his own face.

"She told me she couldn't have a child," he said. "She said she and her husband had tried for three years and the doctors had stopped hoping."

"Posy's birthday is the ninth of May," I said.

He turned his head and looked at the wall behind the bench.

A lake log hung there with the months across the top and pencil marks for the water level.

He walked over and put his finger on August.

He moved it slowly along the wall, September, October, one month at a time, until he reached May.

His hand stayed there.

"Nolan."

"Don't," he said, so quietly I stopped.

He stood with his palm flat on the wall for a long time.

Then he picked up the rag, wiped his hands clean, folded the rag in half, and walked out of the boathouse.

I watched him go down the dock to the very end and stand with his back to me.

I closed the laptop.

I did not follow him.

I knew what it was to need nobody to say anything for an hour.

He did not come to the cottage that night.

I saw the boathouse light on at three in the morning, and again at five.

At six there was a knock on my door, and he was standing on the step with two mugs.

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