I Was His Waiting Room novel · Chapter 24 of 32
Chapter 24: The Loft
Everyone in the bay was looking at me.
The boy's mother, the veteran with his cards face down, and Brendan, half up off his chair.
Niall at the foot of the stairs, not moving at all.
I went to the desk and opened the first folder.
October, three years ago, six hundred dollars to Kiera Lynch.
The memo line said Juniper training.
It was the month of the crash.
"You paid her the first one before she was out of the hospital," I said.
"She asked from the ICU. She said you'd want to start right away."
I closed the folder.
"Testify," I said. "Not for me. Because it's true, and you're the only one who can say it."
His shoulders dropped, all the fight draining out of him.
"Okay."
"Monday at ten. Wear something that isn't a quarter-zip."
The veteran snorted. Somebody laughed, and the room let go a little.
Ronan looked past me at Niall.
It was the first time they'd been in a room since the night of the cannoli.
Niall came across the bay and held out his hand.
"Thank you for the records," he said.
Ronan looked at the hand.
"I didn't bring them for you."
"I know. Thank you anyway."
Ronan shook it, once, hard.
Then he pulled his collar up and ducked back under the door into the snow.
Juniper watched him go with her nose at the gap until I pulled the chain down.
By eleven the families were asleep.
We'd laid every horse blanket I owned on the concrete inside the ring of heaters.
The boy slept between his mother and Pepper.
The teenager slept with her feet on Biscuit.
The veteran lay on his back by the door with his boots on.
Brendan had taken the bunk room with the chemistry teacher's spare quilt.
Kerry was asleep on the folding chair with her hood up and her feet on a bag of kibble.
The generator thumped away in the back, loud and steady.
I put Juniper in her run for the night, away from the draft under the bay door.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of I Was His Waiting Room are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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