My Stepsister Is Photographing My Wedding to Someone Else novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Lunch with Troy

"In August I was scared of a second seat," Romy said.

She sat with her back against the oak, and I sat between her knees with the blanket around us both.

"I'd bought one ticket to Lisbon because I didn't want to look at the empty one beside it. That's all it was. It was never about your job, or your father, or the suitcase."

"It was about you."

"It was about me not being able to hear no." She rested her chin on my shoulder. "If I never asked, nobody could say it."

I turned my head and kissed her jaw.

"Then ask me when you can stand the answer," I said. "Not tonight. I have to see Troy first, and I want to have nothing unfinished in my hands when I do."

"Okay."

"And Romy? I'm not going anywhere."

She held me tighter, and neither of us said anything for a long time.

On Monday at noon, I walked into a sandwich place on Bay Street.

Troy was already there, at a table by the window, in a clean white shirt.

He had a cup of coffee in front of him and the small lined pad beside it, and he stood when he saw me.

We hugged carefully.

"You look tired," he said.

"You look good."

"I slept." He said it with some surprise. "Eleven hours, Saturday. I think I'd been holding my breath since September."

We ordered, and he made me eat half his pickle, as he always had.

"Okay," I said. "Tell me the good news."

"Right." He turned the pad over. "There's someone I want you to know about."

I put my fork down.

"She runs the pilot launch. The boat that carries us out to the ships. Her name's on the logbook, but I'm not telling you her name, because she'd kill me. She's thirty-two, she has a boy who's six, and she laughs at all my worst jokes."

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