Found Money - James Grippando [28]
The waitress interrupted. “One decaf cappuccino,” she said, serving Amy. “And a cup of black sludge for the gentleman.” She smirked. “Just kidding. It’s Brazilian blend. Anything else?”
“No, thank you,” said Ryan. She turned and left.
Amy emptied a pack of Equal into her decaf.
“Are you sure I should just keep it?”
“Hey, it’s a thousand dollars. We’re not talking Fort Knox here. Just don’t tell my wife I let you keep it. She’d probably sue me.”
Amy sensed an opening to the kind of personal details she wanted. “She’s fond of money, is she?”
“That’s an understatement. It’s the reason we’re getting divorced.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. Fortunately, we don’t have any children. Just money problems.”
“Too much? Or not enough?”
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Kind of personal.”
“Sorry. It’s just a familiar story, I guess.” Amy hesitated. She didn’t want him to know too much about her, but if she told him something about herself, perhaps he’d give her the insights she wanted into the Duffy family. “You might say I’m a bit of an expert on the subject of money and marriage.”
“Is that so?”
“My ex-husband was an investment banker. Loaded. It only made him meaner, greedier, if you ask me.”
“You’re divorced now?”
“Yeah. And I’ll be honest with you. We may not be talking about Fort Knox here, as you say. But I appreciate your generosity. I can definitely use the money.”
“Your rich ex-husband doesn’t pay enough alimony, I take it.”
“Doesn’t pay any. Not a cent.”
Ryan kidded, “Do you have the name of his lawyer?”
She smiled, then turned serious. “Ted didn’t need a lawyer. After I filed for divorce, he threatened to hide a bag of cocaine in my truck and get me arrested, then use the drug conviction to keep me from getting custody of our daughter. I wasn’t sure if he meant it, but I couldn’t take the risk. We settled. I got what was important to me—my daughter. Ted got what was important to him: he pays no alimony and hardly enough child support to cover the monthly food bill.”
“Sounds pretty tough.”
“Actually, I’ve never been happier in my life.” She smiled, though it was another half-truth. Taylor was a total joy, but going to law school solely for the money made her feel like a hypocrite.
She raised her coffee mug. “A toast to your new life as a redneck.”
“A redneck?”
“It’s an acronym. Sounds like redneck, but it’s R-D-N-K. Recently Divorced, No Kids.”
Ryan smiled. “Never heard that one before.”
“I made it up. Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
She caught him watching her over the rim of his cup. The sudden silence could have been uncomfortable, but his eyes put her at ease. She blinked, reminding herself to stay on the subject. “Getting back to this money thing.”
“Of course. The money.”
“I was pretty nervous about it at first. Now that I’ve met you, it’s almost embarrassing to say what I was thinking. I was just afraid to keep it until I had some assurance that your dad was on the level.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, I was having all kinds of crazy thoughts. Maybe your dad was a notorious bank robber or something.”
Ryan smiled. “We’re talking about Piedmont Springs. The last time we had a bank robbery, I think Bonnie and Clyde were the prime suspects.”
She laughed lightly. “You’re a hard one to figure out, you know that?”
“How’s that?”
“A doctor who doesn’t worship money and hasn’t lost his sense of humor.”
“I guess I get that from my dad.”
“Were the two of you a lot alike?”
Ryan thought for a second. A week ago he would have given an unqualified yes. Now he hedged. “I think so. It’s funny. I was looking through some family albums after the funeral. Some old pictures of my dad really struck me. He looked almost exactly the way I look now. Put him in some modern clothes, change the hair a little, he probably could have passed for me.”
“That’s eerie, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. We’re all like our parents in some ways. But when you see such