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“I don’t know ”

It was an opening, soive us another chance When you asked for one, I agreed, and I thought about where we’d gone wrong and here I am You owe me the same consideration, Annie You owe it to our family ”

“Oh, good A lecture on family values from you ” She pulled a compact from her purse and flipped the h Girl ”

“You look beautiful ”

She looked up at hirow out ”

“I shouldn’t have said that ”

She clicked the compact shut “No, you shouldn’t have ”

Her gaze was uncomfortably direct, and he was ree, he didn’t know the wo across from him at all “On June fourteenth, I’ll meet you at the house We can discussthisthen ” She got to her feet, and he saw that she was a little unsteady She was obviously holding herself together with incredible effort

He took hope froive up, Annie I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back ”

She sighed “Winning was always very i remark, she turned and walked out of the diner

Chapter 22

Nick waited for Annie to return For the first hour, he told hi an idiot He knew she couldn’t possibly meet with her husband and be back here in less than two hours

But then two hours had stretched into three, and then four, and then five

Forcing a s production out of dinner, for Izzy’s sake He’d stuh one of Annie’s recipes: chicken breasts breaded with cornflakes and potato chips He’d forgotten to start the rice in time, and so he served the oven-fried chicken with sliced bananas and chunks of cheese He’d tried his best to keep a conversation going, but he and Izzy were both keenly aware of the empty chair at the table

Everything had gone well enough until Izzy had looked at him, her upper lip mustachioed with a thin band of milk “Daddy, she’s comin’ back, isn’t she, Daddy?”