He Priced Me At A Penny So I Married Another Chapter 16
It took me a long time to sew that patch in place.
When I was little, I always thought my mother worked too slowly at things like this. It was only after I held a needle myself that I understood how much patience every smooth seam required—and how little I had noticed.
Carol saw that I kept hiding in the bedroom, so she moved the sewing basket into the living room.
When Everett came by, he would sometimes catch me still wrestling with tangled thread. He would sit beside me and hold the other side of the fabric.
His hands were large, and he looked awkward pinching the corner of the cloth. The moment his attention slipped, the backing would pull crooked.
I told him he was only making things more difficult. Then he would hold perfectly still and watch the cloth with complete seriousness, not even touching his phone when it lit up.
One time, I looked up and met his gaze, and the needle nearly pricked my finger.
He immediately tightened the fabric, then worried he might be pulling too hard. His hand froze in midair, and even his ears went red.
I couldn’t help laughing.
Carol was shelling edamame nearby. She lowered her head and laughed, too.
Once winter set in, Mrs. Hale invited us over for dinner.
Before we went out, I changed clothes in front of the mirror over and over. If I pulled the collar too high, I looked stiff. If I lowered it, I worried she’d think I wasn’t being formal enough.
A relative forwarded Tori’s video to me again.
The caption she had added was still there. She said I ought to know my place so I wouldn’t move to another city and keep making a spectacle of myself.
I put my phone facedown on the dresser, my palm flat on the tabletop. My heartbeat kept speeding up.
Everett came to pick me up. When he pushed open the half-closed bedroom door, I was still standing in front of the mirror.
“I don’t want to go today.”
The words had barely left my mouth before I rushed to find my coat.
“Your parents already prepared dinner. If I cancel now, they’ll think I’m trying to make things hard for you. And this is my first time officially going to your house.”