I Was His Waiting Room novel · Chapter 12 of 32
Chapter 12: Pepper
I didn't let go of his shirt.
"Then tell me," I said. "What does it make you?"
He looked at the window over my shoulder.
"The week of the crash, my brother was in a cell and she was in surgery. My father had been dead a year. Mam couldn't stop crying. Her lawyer said she'd sue us for everything."
"So you wrote a deal."
"I wrote it in two nights at my kitchen table. Twelve thousand a month, care on top, no trial. I made it stop on divorce because I thought she'd want out. I thought I was building her a bridge."
"And she moved onto it."
"She put furniture on it." He shook his head, his jaw tight. "I've signed thirty-six of those checks. Every one, I told myself it was what decent people do. I never once called to ask about her dog."
"Neither did Ronan."
"Ronan wasn't paying for her to stay married to my brother."
"No. He was paying for her to stay sad."
He looked back at me.
"I don't need you clean," I said. "I've had three years of a man who looked clean. I need you honest."
"That's all?"
"That's a lot."
"Then honestly," he said, "I'd like to do that again. Somewhere without a window on it."
"There's no window in the kennel."
"There are four dogs in the kennel."
"They don't tell anyone anything."
The corner of his mouth went up, all the way this time.
"Thursday," I said. "Come to class. Find out what you're getting into."
He came on Thursday in a charcoal suit, because he'd come straight from a bank meeting.
Kerry took one look at him and handed him a fanny pack full of liver treats.
"Put it on."
"Over the suit?"
"Over the suit. You're not a CFO today. You're furniture."
Pepper's mother had brought her boy after all.
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