Chapter 24: The Fourteenth of June

On the fourteenth of June the Marlow Grange hall was full again, and this time Nathan had paid for every chair himself.

He stood at the front of the room in a navy suit with a courthouse lanyard still in his pocket, because he had forgotten to take it out.

The banner over the stage said NATHAN AND BOWEN in plain white letters.

There were no plastic grooms on the cake.

Dell had thrown them out herself.

"Stop fixing your tie," she said, in the aisle, in her best dress.

"I'm not."

"You've fixed it four times."

"It's crooked."

"It's perfect. Go stand there."

She pointed at the spot in front of the judge, and Nathan went.

The judge from the courtroom was waiting there with a small book and an expression she was trying to keep official.

"I told your supervisor I'd do this for free," she said. "Don't make me regret it."

"I won't, Your Honor."

"Then stand still."

The hall was full of faces he knew.

The waitress with the gray braids sat in the front row with a pie box on her knees.

The man from Dayton had come, with his cast long gone, and the hygienist sat two chairs down from him and nodded when Nathan looked over.

Britt had pleaded to the false report in April.

The prosecutor had let her keep her record to a misdemeanor and her place at her sister's in Columbus.

Nobody in the hall had said her name all day.

The doors opened at the back.

Everyone stood.

Bowen came in alone.

He wore a charcoal suit with the sleeves a little short, and his hair had been combed flat and was already springing up at the crown.

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