I Married My Fiancé's Uncle novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: The Ladder

Nobody at the table breathed.

I picked up the oldest photograph.

The hood. The shoulders. The way he stood with his weight on one foot, hands in his pockets, perfectly still.

The date in the corner was five Novembers ago.

"Long before my son ever proposed to you," Priscilla said softly. "Isn't that interesting?"

Laurence leaned back in his chair. Evangeline's phone was in her lap, screen up.

I looked at Felix.

He hadn't touched the photos. He was looking at me.

I gathered all five into a neat stack, slid them back into the envelope and tucked it under my arm.

"Thank you for dinner, Priscilla," I said. "Keep the pie."

I walked out. Felix stood and followed me without a word to anyone.

His car was an old black sedan he drove himself. The heater took four blocks to start working.

Neither of us said anything down Lincoln Avenue.

At the first red light I took out the oldest picture again and held it up to the streetlight.

Something about the hood itched at the back of my brain.

Five Novembers ago, I was twenty.

An intern on the windows crew. Paid nothing, sleeping in the workshop, so happy I couldn't stand still.

That year, Window Seven had a carousel. The glass was out for the night so the riggers could bring it in, and the new pane stood in its crate on the sidewalk.

At two in the morning I went up the tall ladder to hang the last star.

And the ladder went over.

I remembered the sick swing of it. The street tipping. The crate of plate glass right below me.

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