AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes.”
“This is legal money?”
“Mine is,” Nate said. “This drop is too. It’s just something I wasn’t able to pay out before I got arrested.” He looked at Nick. “Honestly.”
“And Ginger doesn’t know.” He wasn’t asking.
“It’s not illegal,” Nate said. “I just want it to be over, so I don’t have this hanging over my head anymore.”
“I get that.”
But Nate wasn’t sure how he could. Nick was nineteen years old.
“Thank you,” Nate said. “I really will pay you for this.”
“It’s not necessary,” Nick said, clapping Nate on the shoulder. “See you in the morning.”
Nate hardly slept, and when he lifted his backpack over the tailgate of Ginger’s truck the next morning, he felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.
Thankfully, Connor had enough energy for both of them, and he occupied Ginger’s attention. Nate watched as they laughed together, and he had a flash of a future with the three of them as a family.
So much about him had changed, as he’d never really envisioned himself as a husband and father. But he sure did now.
That hope that had been growing inside him swelled, and he took a moment to revel in the fantasy of him and Ginger, married, with Connor as their son.
“Ready?” she asked, breaking through the image in his mind.
“Yep,” he said, hoping he could make it through this morning.
* * *
Hours later,Nate couldn’t focus, though Connor kept calling to him from the waves. Nick should’ve been back fifteen minutes ago. Then twenty. Then thirty.
He checked his phone over and over, but there were no calls and no messages. Ginger’s family was set to arrive in only twenty minutes, and Nate couldn’t remember any of their names, though he and Ginger had been talking about them all week.
Flipping over his phone again, Nate considered what to do. He couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. “I’ve got to use the restroom,” he said to Ginger. “Keep an eye on Connor?”
“Of course.”
He bent down and kissed her, easily slipping his hand into her purse and taking her car keys. He walked away, his muscles vibrating with his pulse. Around the side of the small brick building that housed the bathroom, Nate dialed Nick.
“Come on,” he muttered. Maybe the kid had met a girl at the mall. Maybe he’d spied his favorite hamburger joint. Nate prayed for either of those as the line rang.
“Nate,” a man said, but it wasn’t Nick.
It was Oscar.
Nate strode toward the parking lot. “Where is he?”
“Dad,” Connor said, and Nate spun toward him while Oscar said he didn’t appreciate someone else making the drop.
Nate pulled the phone away from his mouth. “Come on,” he said to Connor. “We have to go for a ride.” He picked up his son and hurried toward the truck.
“I had a thing,” Nate said. “Nick is nothing. He doesn’t even know how much or why I’m giving you money.”
“He knows it’s me,” Oscar said.
“Also not true,” Nate said, opening the door and sliding Connor in the passenger seat. “I didn’t tell him anything but how to get the money from my bank and where to drop it.” He ran around the hood and opened the driver’s door.
