Chapter 4
I caught the back of my father’s chair before the movers reached the truck.
“Put it down.”
One man stopped. The other looked at Ryan.
“It’s going with me,” Ryan said. “Daniel arranged it.”
The men lowered the chair onto the terrace. I kept my hand on its back while I looked past them into the truck. My father’s cedar chest was already inside.
“Take that out too.”
Ryan planted himself between me and the open doors. “It’s a chest, Claire. You can’t use everything he left you.”
Behind me, Daniel’s voice came through the speakers.
“Before we eat, I want to thank the man who made today possible.”
I turned toward the glass doors. Daniel stood at the head table, holding the microphone with both hands. My father’s photograph was beside him.
“Claire’s dad built a home that brought people together,” Daniel said. “I wish he could see us all here tonight.”
For a moment, I wanted to go back inside. Daniel had put the photograph where everyone could see it. He was saying the words he had promised me.
Then Ryan reached for the chair again.
“Don’t touch it.” I moved between him and the movers.
He nodded toward the truck. “Talk to your husband.”
“I am,” I said, loud enough to carry through the open doors. “Daniel, tell them to unload my father’s chest.”
Daniel heard me. His eyes met mine across the room. Instead of answering, he lifted his glass.
“He would have wanted this house full of family,” he told the guests.
Marilyn rose from her seat, the dog tucked against her side. She was smiling before Daniel finished his sentence.
“That’s why,” he said, “Claire and I are opening our home to my mom and my brother. They’ll be living here with us.”
A few guests clapped. Others turned to look at me standing beside the truck. Marilyn held up a front door key tied with a white ribbon. Daniel had given her a key after moving her clothes out of my bedroom.
Ryan pulled the chair from behind me. I grabbed it again, and the movers stepped away. He let go with a laugh, as though I was the one making their job difficult.
“Mom already has a key,” he said. “What do you think tonight was for?”
Inside, Daniel beckoned to me with his free hand.
“Claire,” he said into the microphone, “come welcome them home.”
Marilyn accepted a hug from one of Daniel’s relatives. She turned her face toward me over the woman’s shoulder and raised the key higher.
I left the chair where the movers had set it and went to the back of the truck.
“Unload the chest,” I told the driver.
“I have instructions from the man who hired us.” He reached up for the rear door.
“This is my house. That is my chest.”
Ryan shouted for him to close it. The metal door rattled down between us. I caught sight of the cedar chest through the narrowing gap, then it vanished.
The engine started. Behind the glass, Daniel was still waiting for me to come inside and answer him.
I ran to the driver’s door and grabbed the handle as the truck began to move.