Life after Goodbye novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Brunch at the Bakery

Cormac's POV

The bakery was closed for brunch, and every person in it was looking at me.

There were nine of them at two pushed-together tables.

The owner was there, and the girl from the counter.

So was a retired couple who had bought the same loaf for thirty years.

A delivery driver had stayed for the coffee.

Calla sat across from me with flour on her cuff.

At thirteen weeks she was round under her sweater, and she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen at a breakfast table.

"So," the owner said. "Doctor."

"I'm not her doctor anymore," I said.

"That's what she told me." She slid a plate of eggs in front of me. "I'd like to hear you say what you are."

"Hungry."

"Try again."

The girl from the counter put her chin in her hand, delighted.

"I'm in love with her," I said.

It came out plain, in a room with a delivery driver in it.

Nobody laughed.

The retired husband nodded once.

"Good," the owner said. "Eat."

Under the table, Calla's foot found my ankle and stayed there.

I ate the eggs without tasting them.

At one o'clock the owner stood and tossed a ring of keys onto the table between us.

"The oven's off and the front's locked," she said. "I'm going to my sister's till six. If I hear the stairs, I'll assume it's mice."

The retired couple were already putting on their coats.

On the narrow stair behind the kitchen, Calla went up in front of me, and I watched her hand slide along the rail.

The studio was warm and smelled of bread.

She turned in the middle of the room and looked at me, and I could not find one thing to say.

I had waited a month for a day with nobody downstairs.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Life after Goodbye from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.