Page 81 of Don't Tell

"And I hope you will forgive my son's poor manners earlier. I have raised him better than that." She smiles at me withoutletting go of Suzanne's hand. "You would not know it. I assure you it is true."

Beau makes a sound that is half a laugh and half a cheer. He crosses the porch in two strides and pulls Suzanne into a one-armed hug that swings her a quarter-turn and ends with her laughing into his shoulder. I watch my brother hug my girlfriend in the doorway of my mother's house. My chest loosens in a way it has not loosened in years.

Henry steps forward last and shakes Suzanne's hand.

"I'm glad you're here."

"Thank you."

He nods once at me.

I owe him a conversation, but not tonight.

Suzanne looks up at me.

Her eyes are bright. She is biting the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. She is smiling around the bite.

I squeeze her hand.

Standing on my mother's porch with my girlfriend, my brother, my stepfather, and the woman who raised me, on a day I have spent weeks dreading and have, somehow, survived…

Everything is right with the world.

I don’t say it out loud.

I don’t have to.

She squeezes my hand back.

Vivienne opens the door.

We go inside.

20.Suzanne

Tuesday morning, I'm in his kitchen with a cup of tea I haven’t finished and Renée on speaker. I notice I'm smiling for no reason except that the light coming through the window is good, the tea is hot, and the love of my life is in the next room on a call.

"You haven't answered my question."

"What question?"

"What does it look like?"

"What does what look like, Renée?"

"The house, Suz, the kitchen, the view… I have been waiting for days to be told what the view looks like, and you keep changing the subject."

"The view is fine."

"Suz, come on."

"It's a view. It's a city. There are buildings."

"I’m going to come over there and shake you."

"There is a tree across the street."

"A tree?"