South of Superior - Ellen Airgood [66]
“I wouldn’t feel right taking a paycheck—”
He erupted then. “Did you not hear me? You don’t work here anymore. You have no respect for this place. I depended on you.”
“But Randi was here—”
His face was full of disdain. “Oh, that’s great. What if she hadn’t been? What if she hadn’t blown off her actual job at the bar to bail me out? You think that doesn’t matter? You don’t show, so then she doesn’t show, and then Russel’s screwed over at the Tip Top, and it’s all so you can take some field trip. This isn’t a holiday for Us.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”
“I don’t have any margin for errors, and I can’t have somebody around who doesn’t respect that. And you don’t. You can’t. You have nothing at stake here.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling dizzy. Why had she assumed he’d forgive her? She recalled how immediately he’d fired Trisha for calling in sick back in June. “Okay.”
He nodded.
She fought back tears with a vengeance. “You’ll have to let me know whatever it is your insurance company wants. My driver’s license, a report? Just, I guess, call—”
“I can’t make a claim, I only carry the minimum.”
Her heart plummeted further, which hadn’t seemed possible. “But you’re still making payments.”
“On a credit card.” Paul was again staring at the truck. “So it’s not officially financed, so I can save on insurance.”
“So—”
“So I have to pay for this out of pocket,” he said with great and terrible patience.
Madeline swallowed. “Oh.”
“The really great thing about this is that I was pretty much taking it back to the dealer to trade it in for something cheaper, something I can actually afford. Especially after the compressor on the pop cooler blew today.”
“What?”
“The pop cooler. It died.”
“Just out of nowhere?” Madeline knew it was a stupid question the moment the words were out.
“That’s how things go,” he half-shouted, spinning to face her. “One minute you’re cruising along smooth, and the next minute all Hell’s broken loose and you’re screwed. You’ve gotten this far in life and never had to learn that? Lucky you.”
“Can the cooler be fixed?” she asked timidly.
His laugh was mirthless. “Sure. For, oh, eighteen, nineteen hundred, I can probably fix it. Or for two, two and a half grand, I can get a new one.”
“I’m sorry.”
Paul shook his head and headed for the back door of Garceau’s. “I’ve got to go. I promised Greyson I’d watch at least the end of the fireworks with him. I’m not letting this spoil everybody’s Fourth.”
16
Hello, Madeline,” Walter said with a big smile. His acceptance of her was so unquestioning that it was easy to feel the same way toward him, and she’d been to see him often since The Day. Two weeks now since she’d smashed Paul’s truck. Walter at least was always glad to see her, but then he didn’t know what she’d done, and could anyone blame her if this came as a relief? They settled into their rockers in the sunroom, and after a little while she told him she’d been to Stone Lake. Finally she could bear to think about it, the adventure that had started so well and ended so badly.
“Oh, Stone Lake,” he said, nodding.
“Did you grow Up there?”
“Oh yes. Me and Joe and Mama and Father lived out there.”
His expression was pleased and matter-of-fact and it made Madeline feel good to see it. “So it was a happy time?”
“Oh yes. Joe liked to go all over the woods, he took me with him sometimes. Mama and Father liked Us to bring some game home for supper if we could get it.”
“What were they like, your parents?”
“Father ran the mail to Gallion. In the winter he took a dogsled. I liked the dogs but Father said they weren’t pets, I had to stay clear of them. He caught a cold and died one winter. I was ten. Mama said I was a big boy now, I would have to help her out more with the chores. And Joe had to go out to work then, he couldn’t stay at home.”
“Was it hard?” Madeline asked, gently. She liked it when Walter talked about the past, but she was always careful, not wanting to Upset him.
“Hard?” Walter said blankly.
She let it go.
She didn’t stay with Walter long. She had to get to the bank now that the quote