The Gold Digger's Ledger novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Watch

Miranda's POV

Tristan crossed Forty-Seventh Street without looking at the traffic, and a cab honked twice.

I put my coffee down on the café's window ledge and waited.

He stopped on the curb in front of me.

His hair was wet at the temples, and his hands were empty.

"You bought it," he said.

"I did."

I took the watch out of my bag in its square of green felt and put it into his palm.

It was still ticking.

"Thirty-eight thousand, nine hundred and forty dollars," he said. "Miranda, that's the number on page forty."

"It's what Lydia read out loud on the yacht. I figured somebody ought to pay it."

"You spent the deposit."

"I never spent it. I held it. This is what I was holding it for."

"That money was the last of the money."

"Your Friday envelopes, and the rest was my own savings. I've never spent it better."

I shrugged.

"I just handed it back in a different shape."

He started to laugh and stopped halfway.

"I can't take it."

"You can."

"I sold it so I wouldn't owe you."

"You sold your father's watch to keep a term," I said.

"Nine years, Tristan, and nobody has ever given up something for me and gotten it back. I'm not letting this one stand."

His throat moved.

"You paid for it from the only money you have."

"I paid for it with the money I made putting up with you. It's the best wage I ever earned."

He closed his hand around the watch.

I watched him decide.

Then he put his arm around my neck and kissed me on the sidewalk.

The cab honked again at nothing.

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