Page 28 of The Husband Hour
Matt couldn’t have scripted it better.
ENTER TO LEARN, GO FORTH TO SERVE. Matt had filmed the words carved into the entrance to Lower Merion High School the day he interviewed Rory’s coach and he’d looked at the footage again and again since then, the coach’s haunting question now his own: How many thousands upon thousands of kids have walked through the doors of this school over the years, and how many have actually taken that motto to heart?
He switched back to the clip of Ethan. A pounding on the door startled him. He blinked in the darkness.
“Matt, open up. Henny told me you’re in there.”
He stood from his desk chair and walked slowly to the door. The external door, an add-on to the original house, didn’t have a peephole.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Okay, calm down.” He swung open the door to find a sweaty and disheveled Lauren Kincaid. She wore a Nora’s Café T-shirt, running shorts, and sneakers. Her hair was loose, damp tendrils clinging to the side of her face. Her cheeks were flushed.
She marched into the room and closed the door behind her.
“Can you turn a light on?” she said.
He was already reaching for the switch. When he turned back, he found her standing with her arms crossed peering at his computer screen.
“Can I help you with something?” he asked. The screen was paused on a shot of the beach. Ethan wasn’t in the frame.
“You have some nerve. I tell you I don’t want to do your movie and so you start harassing my family?”
“In my defense, I didn’t harass your sister. I ran into her by chance at a bar and when I told her what I was doing in town, she was game for an interview.”
Lauren leaned back against the desk, facing him. “I don’t know how people like you sleep at night.”
“I’m not doing anything wrong, that’s how. Honestly, Lauren, I’ve gone into this project with the best of intentions. I admired your late husband. I want to pay tribute to him.”
“Mm-hmm. And who does that benefit? Not Rory. You. It benefits you.”
“This film will benefit a hell of a lot more people than it will me.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“Of course you do. Because that justifies you stonewalling me.”
Her mouth dropped open. “And, what, you think my sister has some pearls of wisdom for the greater social good?”
“Hey, she wasn’t my first choice. But you said no. I’m doing the best I can here.”
Lauren seemed to consider this. He waited for her to take the bait. It was difficult not to smile when she finally asked, “What did Stephanie say?”
Chapter Fourteen
Lauren instantly hated herself for asking the question. She wanted to know what her sister had said on camera, and at the same time, she didn’t.
She hugged herself, watching over Matt’s shoulder as he clicked through still images just slightly larger than thumbnail size, all of them numbered.
Wait, was that her living room?
“You were in my house?” she said.
Stephanie filled the screen. She wore white jeans and a turquoise tunic; her hair was loose and gold under the light, her deep blue eyes arresting and steady as she gazed at someone off camera. Then, Matt’s prompt: “So Lauren met Rory through you?”
“She was writing some article for the stupid paper,” Stephanie said. “The school paper. And she was like, Oh, I need to interview Rory. Can you give me his number? Like, she had zero interest in sports and suddenly she’s Bob Costas.”
Lauren tensed, waiting for Stephanie to make it all about herself, as she always did. As she certainly could have when Matt asked, “How well did you know Rory prior to him dating your sister?”
