Dumping My Ex For His Uncle novel · Chapter 6 of 32

Chapter 6: Two Hundred and Twelve

"That's not a reason," I said. "That's a confession."

"I know."

"What did the man say?"

"It doesn't matter. I swung first. That's the part a judge cares about."

"I'm not a judge, Bram. I'm the one who has to tell a caseworker I didn't know."

He nodded slowly.

"Then I'll tell her," he said. "Myself. Whenever she comes."

I went upstairs without answering him.

I made Tilly mac and cheese from a box and listened to her read me a chapter about a dog who solves crimes.

She fell asleep before the dog solved anything.

At ten I heard boots on the stairs to the roof.

I sat in my kitchen for twenty minutes, arguing with myself.

Then I put on my work jacket and followed.

The roof deck was a square of old planks with a rail around it and two lawn chairs that didn't match.

Across the water, the big red Domino Sugars sign was lit up over the harbor.

He was sitting in the uglier chair with two mugs of tea.

"You made me tea," I said.

"I made two teas. If you hadn't come, I was going to drink both."

I sat.

The wind came off the water and smelled like salt and burnt sugar.

"Tell me about the numbers," I said.

He didn't make me ask twice.

"My father had a sailboat. Thirty-one feet. My mother loved it more than she loved the house." He turned the mug in his hands. "When I was nine, they took it out to Annapolis for the weekend. A squall came through. The boat went down. They didn't come back."

"Bram."

"The boatyard had done a bad repair on the hull, so there was a settlement. Eleven hundred thousand dollars, put in a trust for me until I was eighteen." He drank. "My sister was thirty-one. She'd just made junior lawyer at her husband's firm. She was my only family. She was the trustee."

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