Stillwater Promise by Becky Melby

Author:Becky Melby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2013-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

Twelve

He stood in the middle of the living room, hands on his hips. Sara braced herself on the archway leading from the hall, feeling like a dog caught in a bear trap. He’d waited. . .just to finish her off. She stared, daring him to blame one more thing on her.

His hand reached toward his back pocket. “I came home for three reasons.” He pulled out his wallet. “To see the girls—yesterday was a day I’ll never forget. To have an open and honest dialogue with you—I guess until I get on the plane I’ll still be hoping for that. And to give you this.” One stride brought him just close enough to hand her a check. “I didn’t want to mail it. I had a feeling you might not be opening my letters.”

Sara looked down. She knew immediately what it was. It surpassed the running total in her head by 10 percent—two years of back child support plus interest. Brock had researched it and told her several times he’d sent James a bill on her behalf. She’d convinced herself she didn’t want his money anyway, yet the imaginary tab continually multiplied in her head.

Reactions bubbled like a stew pot. Disbelief, relief, anger. This would pay off her credit card bill and tide them over for weeks if she didn’t get a job right away. But she could have used it months ago after they’d lost everything. She thought of his story about digging bread out of a Dumpster. Was that all it was—a story? “Have you been saving this up all along?”

“No.” James looked down at the floor. “If I’d made any money, I would have sent it.”

“Then how. . . ?”

He gave a quick shrug. “I sold some equipment.”

His voice was so quiet on the last two words she wasn’t sure she’d heard him. He looked up but not at her, with eyes that spoke of hopelessness. Her insides twisted. “What did you sell?”

Again he shrugged. “Korgy.” A thin-lipped smile accompanied the word.

Suddenly chilled, Sara hugged her arms to her waist. James had sold his keyboard—the 88-key Korg OASYS—the “synthesis studio” that did everything but make his coffee. She thought of the things she’d called the extravagant purchase—his baby, the other woman, the real love of his life. The thing that spawned their worst fight. Later she’d found out that his mother had paid for much of it. Armed with that new knowledge, Sara had been just as mad that James hadn’t told her that up front.

He stuck his wallet back in his pocket. “She was getting old.”

Tears stung her already sore eyes. James had sold his baby. For her.

Give James a chance. It was almost an audible voice in her head. She closed her eyes, opened them, and motioned toward the couch. “Sit down.”

❧

Sara laid the check on the coffee table between them and sank to the edge of the chair. She rubbed the spot that throbbed above her right eye. What now? What were the rules for fighting fair?

She stared into crystal blue eyes and took a shaky breath.

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