Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“Nate did this,” I said again as I faced my car. “Why would he do that?”
“I’m guessing it’s because he cares for you and didn’t want to see you driving around with unsafe tires.”
Snapping my head to look at Hank, I asked, “He cares for me?”
“Haven, you didn’t notice how he got jealous when I offered to give you a ride home last week?”
“He did?” I asked, feeling a little spark of hope in my chest.
“Yes, ma’am. He was not about to let me take you home.”
My mind drifted back to Nate wanting to tell me something but stopped when Ted showed up. Damn it all. What was he going to say?
“Thank you for telling me, Hank.”
“Now, you’re not going to go off and yell at him for doing something nice for you, are you?”
Smiling, I shook my head. “Me? Yell at Santa Claus? I don’t want coal in my Christmas stocking, Hank.”
Hank winked. “Haven, you also might want to think twice about Ted Reynolds.”
Curious, I turned and faced him before slipping into my car. “Why’s that?”
Hank looked down at the ground nervously before his eyes met mine. “He isn’t known for being a one-woman kind of guy, if you catch my drift.”
The news of Ted should have made me feel sad. Instead, it did nothing. Absolutely nothing.
“Thanks, Hank. And thank you for working me in today.”
He waved as I slipped into the car. I started it, pulled out of the drive, and headed to my meeting with Sophia and our lawyer with a little bit of stress lifted off my shoulders…and it was thanks to Nate Shaw. Of all people. He’d saved me more than once, so why I was surprised baffled me.
I was sure Sophia and I looked like idiots sitting at the meeting table with our mouths hanging open.
Sophia spoke first. “Who was it?”
Pete Mitchell lifted his shoulders. “They wanted to remain anonymous. The check came from another lawyer’s office only minutes before the two of you showed up. It is made out to the LLC you both set up.”
My finger went to the check and pulled it closer to me. The check was for three-hundred-thousand dollars. “Is this legit?” I asked, even though I heard him say it was from another law office.
Pete shook his head. “It’s a donation to your business. You could use it for whatever you want. The dog park, pay off your bus or current debts, whatever you’d like. There was no stipulation with it.”
Turning to Sophia, I slowly shook my head. “Who has three-hundred-thousand dollars to just…”
My voice trailed off.
“What is it?” Sophia asked.
Tears started to build in my eyes as I thought about earlier when I picked up my car. “He put new tires on my car.”
Pete and Sophia looked at one another and then back to me.
“Who put new tires on your car?” Sophia asked.
Pete handed me a tissue as I fought to keep my tears at bay. I cleared my throat once I knew I could speak without bursting into tears. “Nate. This check is from Nate Shaw.”
“Nate?” Sophia asked in a surprised voice.
Pete looked at the check and then at me. “It’s possible. The Shaw family does a lot for the community. This amount of money could have certainly come from them.”
“Do you know who the law firm is that represents the Shaws?” I asked Pete.
He tugged on his tie as he looked at the check, then back to me. He hesitated as his eyes bounced from the check, to me, and landed on Sophia.
“It’s this law firm listed on the check, isn’t it?”
Nodding, Pete replied, “It is, yes.”
Sophia drew in a sharp breath. “Do you really think it was Nate?”
I nodded. “I know it was.”
“Why would he want to remain anonymous, though?”
Pete spoke then. “It could be for several different reasons.”
With a shake of my head, I said, “I know why he did it.”
“Why?” Pete and Sophia asked at the same time.
A part of me wondered if Nate did it because of what my father had done to me all those years ago. Was it guilt that made him do it? Knowing what a low life of a father I had, or was it simply because he wanted to do this for…me?
Looking at Sophia, I said, “The why doesn’t matter right now.”
“I know Nate, he won’t take this check back or he’ll deny it was him who sent it.”
“What do you think we should do with it?”
She glanced at the check and then thought for a moment. “I think you pay off the bus loan and business credit card.”
Pete nodded his head in agreement.
“That is still leaving you—us—with a good amount of money left. I think we put it aside for anything that might pop up. Having some money in the bank is always good, right?” Sophia asked Pete.