I Don't Want Your Love Out of Pity novel · Chapter 25 of 32

Chapter 25: Every Dollar

On the first Monday back in New York, Conal Draper was standing outside the girls' pre-K door at three o'clock.

He stood between a mother in running tights and a father with a baby strapped to his chest.

He wore a work jacket and good boots, and he was the only man on the sidewalk holding his hat.

I came up the block with the brace clicking at my knee and stopped when I saw him.

"You're early," I said.

"The teacher said pickup is a quarter to three, so I came at two."

"Pickup is at three."

"I know that now."

The running mother gave him a long look and then gave me a longer one.

I knew exactly what she was thinking, and I let her think it.

The door opened, and twenty small coats poured out onto the steps.

Maisie saw him first and came down all four stairs in one jump.

"Papa! A boy said you were a cowboy and I said you were a rancher and he said that's the same."

"It's not," Conal said, and he caught her, hat and all.

Bea walked down behind her with a folded paper in her hand.

She stopped in front of him and held it up.

It was a picture of a long building with a sign on it, and under the sign she had written, in careful capitals, DRAPER HOTEL, with a red X through it.

"Did you sell it?" she asked.

I turned and looked at him.

"Who told her that?"

"I did," Conal said. "She asked why I had been on the phone so much."

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