Chapter 22: The Desk Box

Jessamine's POV

I drove to Findlay with the phone still warm in my hand.

Emmett stood in the lot behind the hardware store with his coat open and nine years of receipts in his fist.

The green truck sat beside him with its hood up, running.

I put my palm on the fender, and the metal buzzed under it.

"He signed every one," Emmett said.

"I can see."

"I haven't called him."

"I did," I said. "He's at Maple Court. Ten minutes."

Keaton came through the gate on foot, from the bus stop on Main Street, because he had sold the car.

He saw the truck and stopped walking.

"Tess," he said.

I held up the stack.

"Nine years of oil changes," I said. "For a truck you told me was sold."

"I never said it was sold. I said, it's handled."

"You let me think it was gone."

"Yes."

"You fired me with this in your glove box."

He stood in the gravel with his hands open.

"I couldn't give back the nine years," he said. "I couldn't give you your father. I could change the oil. So I changed the oil."

"That's not a payment."

"No."

"It doesn't cancel the firing."

"I know it doesn't." His voice cracked. "I don't want it to."

I looked at the dented tailgate.

I didn't forgive him.

But I stopped wanting to hit him, which was different.

"Why the note?" I said. "For Tess, when she wants it."