“Yes.”
“Five. If the hospital starts eating our family alive again — and it will try, because that’s what hospitals do — you don’t decide how to fix it alone.”
He met my eyes.
“I bring it to you first.”
“Exactly.”
Then He Said Something I Wasn’t Expecting
“The start date can still move.”
I stopped.
“You can delay it?”
“I can ask.”
“Then ask, Ben. Please.”
And He Didn’t Argue
For the first time since Oregon entered our marriage, my husband wasn’t presenting me with something finished.
He was waiting for my part in it.
When We Got Home
I stood in the kitchen and listened while he called Oregon from the living room and admitted he’d committed too fast.
“I need to move the start date.”
A pause.
“My daughter needs to finish her school year. And my wife has a business she can’t abandon on six weeks’ notice.”
I Looked Toward the Doorway
