He Chose Her. I Left Carrying His Heir. novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Three Days to Leave

I put the photo in my apron pocket and carried it downstairs in the morning.

Dutch was already at the bench with a coffee, sorting bolts into a muffin tin.

I laid the photograph on the bench between us.

"You knew him," I said. "My husband. When he was sixteen."

He looked at it for a long time without touching it.

"Everyone in Dunmore knew the Chitwoods."

"You have your arm around him."

"I had my arm around a lot of people when I was twenty."

"Dutch."

"I told you the terms." He pushed the photograph back to me with one finger. "I'm not hiding anything that'll hurt you. That's all I'll say."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I've got this morning."

I took the photo and put it back in my pocket.

I could have pushed, and I think he knew it.

But my wrist still ached, and I was tired, and I had learned from Cade how little it helps to demand a thing from a man who has decided you won't get it.

I worked the front counter until noon.

A ranch wife came in for mineral blocks and told me her husband's calves had scours, and I told her which electrolyte to buy.

She bought two bags and said she'd tell her sister.

It was a small thing, but it was mine, and I was wiping the counter with a smile when the engines turned off Route 9.

I knew the sound.

Dutch knew it, too.

He was already moving, and he laid down his wrench and went through the steel door and shut it behind him.

"Dutch?" I said.

The latch clicked.

Three bikes pulled up outside the big front window, and Cade swung off the first.

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