I Chose a New Life novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Prove It

Cliff was sitting on Rhoda's porch steps when the sky started to go gray.

I sat down one step above him, and neither of us said anything for a while.

The regatta flyer was folded in my pocket.

Rhoda's plan sat in my head: hold the footage, and play it on the big screen on August 24, with Bennett at the microphone.

"Three weeks," I said. "We keep quiet for three weeks."

"You wanted me to be useful," he said.

"I know what I said."

"Yesterday morning, before Duluth, I went to the credit union. I put my house up to pay off the Ellery note in full."

I stared at the back of his head.

"Your house."

"My dad's house, four blocks from here. Forty-one thousand dollars. It closes on the fifth of September."

"And if Bennett's father calls the note first?"

"Then I'm short until the fifth, and I lose the boats."

He turned around.

His eyes were red from no sleep, and he didn't hide it.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," he said. "I'm telling you I'm done keeping my mouth shut around you. Whatever happens, I'm standing on your side of it."

I looked at him for a long moment.

I wanted to cry, and I wanted to hit him, and I wanted something else even more.

"Prove it again," I said.

"How?"

"Take me home."

His house was a small gray cottage with a green door and a kitchen that smelled of coffee and cedar.

He had barely shut the door behind us.

I put my hands flat on his chest and walked him back until he hit the counter.

"You don't get to be the careful one this time," I said.

"All right."

"You don't get to ask me if I'm okay."

"Della."

"You're going to let me do this."

His breath caught, and he nodded.

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