Chapter 20: Signing Day

Maddox's POV

I told Roxanne I was flying to Denver on Sunday night.

I did not tell her I was driving to Hartsdale first.

The Aldrich house sat at the end of a long drive lined with bare maples.

I had been there once, in September, to pick up Chandler's equipment bag.

I rang the bell at eight in the morning, in my one suit.

The housekeeper looked at me, and then looked at the truck, and went to find Helen.

She received me in the kitchen, in a robe, with her hair still pinned.

"Mr. Hendry."

"Mrs. Aldrich."

"If you are here to shout at me about the check, you are too late. Roxanne shouted at me very well on her own."

"I'm not here to shout."

"Then sit."

I stayed on my feet.

"I came to say something," I said. "You can say no to all of it."

She waited.

"The team in Colorado wants me to sign Monday. The contract's real, it's three years."

"And?"

"If I sign it, the bonus clears Roxanne's whole degree and the baby's first year. I never have to ask her for anything."

"That sounds like good news."

"It is. I'm going to take it."

"Then why are you in my kitchen?"

"Because I'm not asking you for money." I said it plainly. "I want you to know that."

"Go on."

"I'll never ask for a dollar of the Aldrich money, now or later, for her or the baby. Leave it to Chandler, or give it to the zoo. I don't care."

Helen set down her cup.

"That's a strange speech for a young man in a bad suit."

"It's the only one I wrote."

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