Christmas Recipe for Romance novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Refund

The Hall board meets in the old ballroom on the second Saturday.

The meetings are open to anyone with the nerve.

I had never used mine.

At ten o'clock Abel and I walked in past the coat rack.

He had snow on his boots and a bank envelope in his fist.

Seven board members sat at the long table under my grandmother's portrait.

Barton sat at the head in the good fleece.

Beside him sat the Pinecrest man in his camel coat, tapping a tablet.

Mabry slipped in behind us and took a chair by the door, vibrating.

"Abel," Barton said, spreading his arms. "What a pleasure. Six days to closing, and here's the man himself."

"Morning," Abel said.

He walked the length of the table.

Everyone watched him, because he is six foot four and does not walk the way other people do.

He set the envelope on the polished wood in front of the Pinecrest man.

"Ten thousand dollars," he said. "Cash. The deposit, in full."

The room went still.

"I don't understand," said the Pinecrest man.

"Your letter lets me withdraw if I return it before the eighteenth. I'm withdrawing."

"This is highly irregular. We would expect a wire."

"I sold my knives for it," Abel said. "The man in Burlington doesn't wire."

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