He Kissed My Sister on the Day I Was Forced to Wed novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: What It Costs

Roan signed the old man's papers at nine that night, in the study, with the lamp on and his grandfather watching.

He didn't read them.

I was standing at his shoulder, so I did.

Every page said the same thing in different words.

Two million, eight hundred thousand dollars, payable in monthly installments, secured by his shares of Draper Wharf.

If he missed one, the wharf was sold.

He wrote his name on the last line with a hard, black pen, and the old man took the pages without a word.

"It's done," Roan said, outside, in the dark.

He sounded like a man who had just lifted something very large.

I took his arm, and we walked down to the dock.

The boathouse lights were on.

A truck was parked at the end of it with its tailgate down, and three men were sitting on the tailgate in the dark.

Nash got up.

"We have to talk," he said.

"Not tonight."

"Tonight." Nash held up a battered brown shoebox. "I've got a rule about sitting on my hands, and I just broke it."

The Eyebrow had a cooler on his knee.

The Silent One had a paper bag.

Roan stopped short.

"What is that?"

Nash took the lid off the shoebox.

It was full of cash, rubber-banded and stacked, and under it I saw a bankbook and a folded deed.

"Sixty-one thousand, mine," Nash said. "I sold the bar. The Eyebrow added forty, from the truck. The quiet one has ninety-four, and a lien on his restaurant that the bank was very sad about."

Roan's voice came out low.

"No."

"It's not a question."

"I'm not taking your money."

"It's not your money. It's ours. We put it in the pot, like the hot plate."

"Nash."

"Roan." Nash's voice cracked, and he stopped and tried again. "We were four boys over a bait shop. You gave me your bed when my dad put me out. You walked the Silent One to school for two years because the other kids called him names. Every one of us is standing in this yard because you stood in it first. And now you've put your name on a note for a girl you met on Saturday morning."

"She's my wife."

"She's your wife," Nash agreed. "She's also a mean little genius with a notebook, and I love her already. Take the money."

The Silent One stood up.

He crossed the dock to Roan, and everyone waited.

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