Chapter 17: Paid in Full

Caleb's POV

I had been standing in that church lot for forty minutes, and I had rehearsed it for six days.

None of it survived the sight of Jo coming across the asphalt in her father's old jacket.

She was flushed and furious and alive, and she did not look at me.

Frank Dunleavy did.

He stopped three feet away, a big man in a flannel shirt, with his hands loose at his sides.

"You're the boy who bought my brother's mortgage," he said.

"Yes, sir."

"Maureen's boy."

"No, sir. Nobody's boy. I just owed her a favor."

"Everyone owes Maureen a favor." He almost smiled. "What's in the envelope?"

I held it out.

"It's the assignment of the note. Rooney Holdings signs over every right to Dennis's mortgage to you."

I tapped the bottom line.

"Personally, Mr. Dunleavy. Your name goes here."

He did not take it.

"What do I do with that?"

"Whatever you decide. Call it due. Forgive it. Let Dennis sweat for the thirty days. It's yours, and nobody else gets a vote."

"Not even Maureen?"

"She told me to keep it. She said it was my money in there too."

"Is it?"

"Two hundred and thirty-six thousand dollars of it. Hers is the rest."

I made myself say the next part plainly.

"I put up the shop for the credit line. I'll let two of my guys go until spring."

Jo turned her head.

It was the first time she had looked at me in six days, and I lost track of what I was saying.

"Why?" Frank said.

"Because it should have been yours from the start."

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