Goodbye to the Love I Lost Eight Years Ago novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Goodbye at the Garage
Dale's garage had its roll door half up when I got there.
His truck sat in the lot with the tailgate down and four boxes in the bed.
He was wrapping a toolbox in a moving blanket.
"You're leaving," I said.
"There's a shop for sale outside Denver. The old man who runs it wants out by spring."
"You never told me."
"I didn't know I'd say yes until the video," he said. "Until I watched that man put his boot through your chair and I was standing right there with my hands in my pockets."
"You knocked him down."
"After. I knocked him down after."
He tied the blanket off and wiped his hands on his jeans.
"I spent eight years paying back one kiss," he said. "I fixed your mom's car for free and drove you to every scan. I think I was waiting for somebody to say I was done."
"You're done."
"Say it again."
"Dale Ferris, you're done," I said. "We're even. We've been even since the second year."
He laughed, and his eyes went red.
He reached into the glove box of the truck and took out a plain envelope.
It was soft with age.
"Judith's," he said. "I never spent it."
I opened the flap.
Five hundred-dollar bills, eight years old, were folded inside.
"I couldn't throw it out, and I couldn't keep it," he said. "I wanted you to decide."
I thought about it.
"Spend it," I said.
"On what?"
"A sign for the new shop. Big letters, with your whole name on it."
"That's her money."
"It was her money," I said. "You can make it yours."
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