My Substitute Wife Is Not on the Return Manifest novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Read My Mouth

Dane stood outside the Harborline Cafe with a bunch of grocery-store tulips and no idea what to do with his hands.

The blue envelope was in his inside pocket, still sealed.

For Brooke, only when she asked for nothing, and she had asked for plenty.

He had decided to carry it unopened until that changed, and not to think about it tonight.

The sign on the door said CLOSED.

Through the glass he could see one table set for two, a candle in a jar, and Julie Nickerson behind the counter with her arms crossed.

She unlocked the door and looked at the tulips.

"They're tulips in November," she said. "That's either romantic or a cry for help."

"Is she here?"

"She's in the back, changing her shirt for the third time." Julie jerked her head at a chair. "Sit. We have a rule tonight, and you won't like it."

He sat.

"You can't hear her," Julie said. "Not the quiet stuff. Three years married and you've been guessing at half of what she says."

His ears went hot.

"I've managed."

"You've nodded." She dropped into the chair across from him. "Signe never repeats herself. If you miss it, she lets it go. That's why you've been missing her for three years."

He opened his mouth and closed it again.

"So I'm going to teach you to read her mouth," Julie said. "It's not a trick. You just have to watch her the way you watch a hoist cable. Look at me."

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