Page 269 of Mountain Grump

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Made it so I didn’t notice.

Her eyes…

She’s been crying.

“What happened?” The words taste like that phone call.

They taste like doom.

And when Tilda swallows.

When she works to keep her composure.

I know…

I know this is going to hurt.

“I found the letter,” she whispers. And I hear every word. But I don’t understand.

“What letter?” I whisper back.

And the look she gives me… is disappointment.

I swallow, knowing I’m failing. But…

“What letter, Tilda?”

She lifts her hands that were hidden by her skirt, holding out two things.

I take the first item.

A glasses case.

The aviators.

The ones she’s had since she first sat in my copilot seat.

And my heart feels suddenly too heavy. Like it’s turned to stone.

It feels like it can’t beat anymore.

“Why are you…?”

Then I see the second item.

It trembles in her grip. So I take it.

The piece of paper.

No.

It can’t be.

I threw this away.

“I need you to promise me one more thing.” Tilda’s voice cracks as she repeats the words Jack wrote to me. “You’ll let me find someone else to marry before we tell the lawyer it’s over.”

“No.” I shake my head. “No, Tilda. Don’t do this.”

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