He Kept My $11,200 as a Gift, So a Biker's Dog Took My Side novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Paid in Full

I didn't wake him gently.

I walked into the living room with both sheets of paper in my fist, turned on the lamp and said his name.

Holt opened his eyes and was on his feet before the lamp finished humming.

"What's wrong?"

I held up the invoice.

He looked at it, and I watched his whole body go still.

"That's mine," I said. "That's my knee."

"Joni."

"You paid it."

"I paid some of it."

"You paid all of it. It says zero. And a follow-up visit I didn't know about." I shook the second sheet at him. "When were you going to tell me?"

"I wasn't."

He said it flat, and that was worse.

"Why not?"

"Because you'd have said no."

"Yes! I would have said no!"

Bear had come to stand beside the armchair, with his tail low and his ears flat, and he looked from me to Holt and whined.

I lowered my voice, because I couldn't stand to see Bear shrink.

"I have insurance," I said. "I have a job. I get a bill and I pay it."

"I know."

"On Friday I told a man to give back the money he took from me, and you stood right there."

"I did."

"And all that time, you'd decided I couldn't be trusted with my own knee."

"That's not it."

"Then what is it?"

"My dog hit you." He rubbed a hand across his face. "I didn't think. I walked up to the desk and handed over a card. I do that. I fix things, and I don't ask."

"I'm not a thing you fix."

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