“If you can forgive Tom,”Honny said.“I can mostly forgive him.”Also:“In God’s eyes, you were never apart.”
“The cousins will all be thrilled,”Faith said. “Tom’s their favorite uncle.”
Cherry took Stevie for long walks. But not as long as Tom did.
Cherry found the photos of Tom with his mom buried in a drawer. She hadn’t intentionally been keeping them.
She put them back on the wall in the dining room. She felt less alone.
Tom called. And FaceTimed. He looked tired and well-groomed. One night when he called, he was wearing foundation.
Tom had so much more to talk about than Cherry did. He spent his days with movie stars. He had his photo taken in designer clothes.
But Cherry did most of the talking. She told him all the silly things that Stevie did—not a single one of them was new or surprising—andshe told him what she’d eaten for lunch. She told him that the garbage truck had driven through the corner of their yard again.
At the end of every call, Tom would tell Cherry how many days he had left before he was coming home. “I’ll see you in fourteen days,” he said. In eleven, in nine.
Cherry wasn’t reading any gossip aboutThursday, but Stacia told her the buzz was good—everyone said that Tom had done a terrific job on the screenplay.
That didn’t surprise Cherry. She’d never seen Tom do a bad job on anything.
“Can I wear my wedding ring in photos?”Tom texted to ask her.
“You can wear your wedding ring wherever you want,”Cherry texted back.“We’re married.”
“How married are we?”he asked. At another time in their relationship, it might have seemed playful.
“Terminally,”Cherry replied.
Cherry’s wedding ring was in the bottom of her jewelry box. It was a plain gold band—she’d never wanted a diamond.
She put it on and looked down at her hands.
She sent Tom a selfie—sitting on the couch with Stevie.“Okay if I wear my wedding ring in photos?”
It started to bother her more, that most of Tom’s things were gone.
How was it that they were back together, but there was less of him in the house? Less evidence of him.
She missed his books and his posters and his coffee cup.
“Are your boxes at your dad’s house?” she asked. They were on the phone. Cherry was in bed. Tom was in his hotel room, eating tacos. He’d worked late.
“Yeah,” he said, “in the garage.”
“I could go get them, if you want.”
“There’s no urgency. I can get them when I come home.”
“I feel bad,” she said. “You came back for your things, and now they’re in exile.”
Tom laughed out a breath. “Cherry...” he said softly. “I didn’t come back for mystuff. I came back for you.”
Chapter 69
The railroad museum had its grand opening. Cherry wore a pin-striped denim dress that mimicked engineer’s overalls and a pair of very expensive red boots. (Knee-high, no laces, low heel.)
“You look too cute by half,” Meg Jones chided. “I should send you home.”
