Marcus came home from the hospital after eight days, into the Connecticut house with a nurse Nathaniel had arranged and a list of dietary restrictions Marcus had already decided were negotiable and a recovery timeline he had described as optimistic and intended to beat.
The first Sunday he was home, Claire and Nathaniel came for lunch and she made the braised short ribs she had made for her father's dinner, because Marcus had eaten two portions of them at Christmas and she had stored that information in the place she kept all the small things that mattered.
Marcus ate at the kitchen table of the house where his wife had grown up and did not comment on the dietary restrictions and said it was adequate, which in Marcus Cole's vocabulary translated directly to exceptional.
After lunch, whi
