Chapter 24: Home Early

On a Thursday in April, just after noon, my phone buzzed with an alert from our driveway camera, and I watched Tucker's truck pull in.

I was standing in the break room of the dental office with a cup of soup and the billing clerk beside me.

He was supposed to be at the hospital until seven.

I had texted him at eleven.

Three days late. Don't make it a thing. Can you pick one up on your way?

On my screen, Tucker stepped out of the truck with a pharmacy bag in one hand and a bunch of tulips in the other.

Then he walked to the side door, the one that opens near the guest room.

He never used that door.

The billing clerk leaned over my shoulder. "Everything okay?"

"My boyfriend's home early," I said.

"Lucky you. Mine got home before nine twice this year, and both times he'd lost his keys."

I told my manager I had a family matter, and she looked at my face and told me to take the afternoon.

I drove home with the radio on, singing, which I had not done in years.

The decree had come in March.

Preston had gone to live with a cousin in another state, and he sent his payments on the first of the month, on time, with no note.

The eighteen thousand four hundred dollars had gone into the account for the roof.

The man Daphne left had come that Tuesday, as he said he would.

He sat in my mother's kitchen for an hour without speaking, and then he asked to see the scan.