He Played Husband for Her Dare, So I Left Carrying His Baby novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Lease

Hank's POV

Owen came down the gravel lane on Thursday at noon, alone, in a tie.

I was under the hull of a thirty-foot sloop with a scraper, and I watched his loafers come across the yard.

He stopped three feet from my head.

"Hank."

I slid out on the cradle and stood up.

He looked the same as he had at every Sunday dinner.

He was tall and neat, and he held out his hand.

I wiped mine on a rag and did not.

"You've got a lot of nerve," I said.

"I've got a lot of patience." He put the hand in his pocket. "Walk with me. Your guys are watching."

"They can watch."

"Fine." He looked up at the flat, where the window was open and the blue quilt hung over the sill to air. "Is she in there?"

"She's at work."

"Good. This is between us."

I waited.

He took a long breath.

"I'm going to make this simple," he said. "You left that chat, you said a lot of things to a lot of people, and I understand why. You're a decent guy. You had a bad week. Delia says you were drunk."

"I wasn't drunk."

"Delia says you were. I'm saying you can be."

I stared at him.

"There's a lease," he said. "Twenty years, renewed in June, with a rent freeze, signed by me. It's been sitting on my desk since the spring."

"You told me last month it wasn't renewed."

"I told you it depended on you." He smiled. "It still does."

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