They Chose the Daughter I Found, So I Called In Their Loans novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Terms

Five nights later at three in the morning I walked into the all-night diner on Cambridge Street and found Gabriel Maitland in the back booth.

He was in a gray suit with the tie loosened.

A plate of pie sat in front of him, untouched.

The waitress topped up my coffee before I sat down.

"That one's been here three nights running," she told me, with a look. "Says he's waiting for a doctor."

"I'm not a patient," I told her.

"Honey, nobody is, at three a.m."

I slid into the booth across from him.

"Mr. Maitland."

"Dr. Selwyn." He moved the pie an inch to the left. "Gran's home. They put the stent in Monday. She's already told the cardiologist how to run his floor."

"I'm glad," I said.

"She wants me to take you to breakfast."

"It's three in the morning," I said.

"She said you wouldn't keep regular hours."

I almost smiled.

I put the smile away and drank my coffee instead.

"Three nights," I said. "Is the pie that good?"

"The pie is terrible." He turned his cup in its saucer. "I've been trying to find a way to say this that doesn't sound like an apology bought with dinner. I haven't found one."

"Then try the plain way."

He looked up.

In the diner's light his eyes were dark brown, and tired, and steady.

"I sat at that table and watched your father tell you to leave," he said. "I'd come for a deal. I told myself it wasn't my table. I told myself you'd have said something if you wanted help, and you didn't ask, and I finished my wine."

"Yes. I saw."

"I know you saw." His jaw tightened. "I've thought about nothing else since. I'd like to take you to dinner. One. You pick the place. If it's terrible, you never have to see me again."

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