“At a hotel in Seattle?” I asked.
“The company needed me to keep him happy,” he said, running his hand through his sandy hair. “It was last-minute, Claire. I forgot to mention it.”
“There are two dinners on here,” I said.
“He brought his wife along,” Mark said, his eyes finally meeting mine. “I spent the evening talking about shipping routes while they ate.”
I looked at his face, searching for the familiar lines of the man I had married seven years ago. He looked tired, his shoulders slanting forward.
“Why didn’t you call me?” I asked.
“My phone battery died on the drive up,” he said.
He picked up the receipt and folded it into a small square, tucking it into his pocket.
“Emily has been helping me with some family errands lately,” he said, “so I was distracted trying to coordinate things with her before I left.”
“What kind of errands?” I asked.
“Just stuff for your mother,” he said, turning back to the sink. “Helen needed some heavy boxes moved out of her attic.”
He did not look at me again, and the conversation ended there.
