Page 9 of The Wife
Either way, Pete’s was happening. It was a Riverbend tradition that Pete officially started not caring about fake IDs once he knew you were no longer in high school. A bunch of kids from my class would be there tonight.
Then, if he could, Jake would meet me at Pete’s later.
Which was pretty much what it looked like was going to happen, because as I sat on the stage behind the principal and looked out over the crowd I didn’t see him anywhere. It wasn’t a large group. We were only a class of eighty-six, and since we all knew each other’s families it wasn’t hard to see who was here and who was not.
I noticed Bobby MacPherson’s dad was not. Just his mom. It almost—almost—made me feel for bad for him. I knew there was trouble there, and I knew Bobby had spent the last year basically being angry at the world.
He’d left me alone, so I shouldn’t have cared at all. I guess I knew what it was like not to have a parent in your life. His dad wasn’t dead, but sometimes it was harder if they chose to leave you.
For my dad there had been no choice. He’d be here now if he could be. I knew that. Or not. Because if he’d had a mare about to drop a foal, he probably would have told me the same thing as Jake.
I smiled and lifted my head to the ceiling of the auditorium and smiled at him and hoped somewhere in the universe he saw it.
Then, as we all stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, I saw him. He was jogging down the row of chairs, holding his tie against his chest. Still in his neatly pressed jeans, but he’d gone so far as to wear a tie and jacket.
He found an empty seat along the aisle and stood in front of it.
He looked up at the stage to find me, and when his eyes hit on me I waved.
He raised his chin and smiled.
He made it. To my graduation. Which meant we were going to get to have dinner and then he was going to take me to Pete’s.
I thought about my scale that I kept in full display on the kitchen counter, and mentally moved all my disks to the right side. (The right side was for good stuff. The left for bad.)
Then it occurred to me that Jake, just by being Jake, gave me a lot of ten days.
* * *
Iwasin my best dress. Blue with small white flowers all over it, a deep V in the front, and a wrap-around tie at my waist. I paired it with white wedges and I hoped, I thought, I looked anywhere as close to as nice as Jake did in his jacket and tie.
I mean, this wasn’t a Frank’s dinner. This was a real restaurant with cloth napkins and really nice silver and everything.
The Chop House was a legit steakhouse. It had taken us over an hour to drive here, but it was so worth it. I felt like… I mean, the whole thing had the feel of… a date.
Not that it was a date. It was my graduation dinner. Logically I knew that, but still I was going with it.
“You’re not eating,” Jake pointed out.
“I’m excited to see the baby.”
Jake smiled and it almost took my breath away. “Amazes me every time it happens. One minute I’m sliding this big ball of goo out, and the next it’s up on these little spindly legs, looking at them likewhat the heck am I supposed to do with these things?”
“I’m glad it worked out.”
“Me too. I would have been heartbroken thinking I missed your graduation.”
Heartbroken. Hmm. That was an odd word choice.
I cut into my steak and took another bite and closed my eyes it was so good. I must have made a noise too, because when I opened my eyes Jake was looking at me funny.
“It’s a steak, Ellie.”
“It’s a good steak, Jake.”
He smiled again, but a little tighter this time.
“And we still get to go to Pete’s after this.”
