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The turn for tacos comes up, and I take it.
Astrid comes down after Tova’s asleep, with her hair wet, and I’ve been standing in my own kitchen rehearsing one sentence for most of the evening.
She’s still on the stairs when I tell her.
“She elbowed the kid today.”
“The school called me before she told me.” She comes the rest of the way down. “She did it properly.”
“You didn’t call me.”
“She asked me not to. She wanted to tell you herself.”
“Your mother isn’t coming.”
She stops halfway to the cabinet. “Tova has a great deal of information.”
She takes a glass down and fills it at the sink. She doesn’t drink it.
“Let me buy her a ticket.”
She sets the glass on the counter.
Business class. A car at the airport. The hotel by the river so she isn’t sleeping on a foldout. I leave all of it where it is.
She turns the glass a quarter turn on the counter.
She turns the glass back. I don’t say anything.
She looks at the window. At the glass. At me.
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
Chapter fifty-one
Colt
Being married already turns out to be no protection against Mack trying to dress me.
“That buckle.”
“No.”
“It’s your wedding.”
“I was at the first one.”
“You wore a blue suit to a courthouse and didn’t invite me.”
“It was a good suit.”
Mack points at the silver buckle sitting on the dresser.
“Wear it.”
My left fingertips buzz when I reach for the cuff of my shirt. I miss the button once, catch it the second time, and keep going.
