They Left Me at the Canyon, So I Came Back for the Wedding novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Check
Carrie's POV
Haskell Hardware had a bell on the door and a cat asleep on the paint counter.
I went in at four on Thursday, after the hearing, in my park jacket.
I hadn't told Caleb.
The order didn't name me, and he was at Rachel's with a lawyer, going through papers.
I told myself I only needed a padlock.
Diane Haskell stood behind the register in a green apron, ringing up a man with a bag of deck screws.
She saw me, and her hand stopped on the keys.
She finished the sale.
She wished the man a good evening and watched him all the way out.
Then she turned the sign in the door to Closed.
"You're the ranger," she said.
"Carrie."
"I know what you are. You're the one who drove my daughter's fiance to a cabin and kept him."
"He wasn't hers to keep."
"Hmm." Diane came around the counter. "Come in the back."
I should have said no.
I followed her past the keys and the garden hose into an office with a steel desk and a calendar from a feed company.
She sat down, opened a checkbook, and wrote.
"Ten thousand dollars," she said.
She tore the check out and slid it across the desk.
It was made out to me.
The memo line said: Legal fees.
"For what?" I said.
"For going home to Utah. This week."
"You're paying me to leave Dayton."
"I'm paying you to leave my daughter's business alone." She folded her hands. "You've had your fun. He was a sad man on a couch and you were kind to him. That's very nice."
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