They Left Me Out of Their Group, So I'll Leave Them Out of My Life novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: On His Knees

Tegan's POV

Rowan woke me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Dock," he said.

I put Gran's blue cardigan on over my sweater, and my coat over that, and went down the stairs behind him.

The kitchen was dark.

Through the window the lake was silver, and a man was kneeling at the end of the dock.

I knew the shape of his shoulders.

I had slept against them for four years.

"I'll come with you," Rowan said.

"I know."

"If you want me to stay in the house, I will."

"Come with me," I said. "Stay behind me. Don't touch him unless I say."

"I'm not promising that."

"Then promise you'll try."

He nearly smiled, and held the door.

The planks were furred with frost, and every step on them sounded loud.

Santino heard it and turned on his knees.

He had been crying for a while.

His face was swollen and wet, and his good jacket was open, and there was a dark patch on one knee where he had knelt in a puddle.

"Tegan," he said. "Oh, thank God. You came."

"I didn't come for you. You woke him up. I'm giving you the length of a cigarette."

"I don't smoke."

"Then you've got less."

He laughed, a ragged little sound, and wiped his nose with the back of his wrist.

"You look tired," he said.

"What do you want, Santino?"

"I want you to come home."

I waited.

"I'll take the group down tonight. I'll tell Bailey it's over. I'll tell everybody I was an idiot. We'll go back to Orchard Street and I'll sleep on the couch for a month if you want."

"And Friday?"

"There's no Friday. I'll cancel. I'll tell them I'm sick."

"There's a tent and a caterer and your mother."

"I'll fix it."

"You've been fixing it for three years."

He stared at the boards.

For a moment I thought that was the end of it, that he would just kneel there and cry until the sun came up.

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