Page 8 of The Millionaire's Mechanic

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He no longer stood as tall, and his clothes were a little more wrinkled even though Georgia ironed them now. She even sprayed them with starch the way Diamond had taught her, but they never stayed crisp and smooth the way they had when her foster mom was alive.

They had lost Diamond four years ago to breast cancer. And then Mack had died in a car wreck last year. Now she and Ephraim were alone.

But you have each other, she reminded herself.And you both need to eat. Ignoring him, she clucked her tongue and waved him to the table.

Ephraim sat at the small four-person table with a slow movement, grunting as he folded himself into the chair with effort. Taking off his glasses, he began to polish them, staring off into space.

She continued to prepare their meal, letting the music from her phone take the place of conversation. Georgia drained the hot water from the pasta before taking the plates and glasses from the cabinet and setting them on the table.

“Leftovers would have been fine,” Ephraim said, rousing enough to track her movements. “You didn’t have to go to any trouble.”

“All that’s in the fridge was stale Chinese,” she pointed out, taking a seat after loading up their plates. “But that was my fault. I couldn’t get to the shopping until today. It’s been busy at work.”

She handed him the plastic bottle of shredded parmesan. “I hope you don’t mind spaghetti again so soon. I wanted to do something fast so I can put in a few hours on the Talbot.”

His small smile was more than enough to warm her, making the effort worth it. “Not to worry. You know it’s one of my favorites.”

Since he said that about every dish she made, Georgia didn’t really, but she simply dug in, telling him about her day in between bites. But Ephraim simply nodded when she spoke, his mind a million miles away.

Her dad was always a little unfocused, but this was another level of abstraction. Even when Diamond had finally passed, he’d been there for her and Mack.

But that was because he’d been prepared. Her mom had been sick for a long time. Diamond had known the end was coming. They both had time to prepare. It had been tougher when Mack died. There had been some very dark days for them both, but they remembered what Diamond had told them over and over during her last few months.

Family is everything. You have to be there for each other, no matter what, because no one will be there for you like your family.

Georgia finished her plate, noting that her father’s was almost untouched. “Is everything all right?”

Ephraim wiped her mouth with his napkin. “Everything is…well, things are not good,ziskiet. I’ve decided to sell the house.”

Startled, Georgia fumbled her fork. It clattered to the floor, leaving little red stains on the cream and blue linoleum.

“It’s because of him, isn’t it?”

Eight months ago, her father had been ripped off by his business partner. Abraham had been Ephraim’s closest childhood friend. They had set up a small accounting firm in their mid-thirties. Things had gone very well for the first decade, their business had been small but stable. But Abraham had hidden the fact he had developed a gambling habit. He’d ended siphoning money from their client accounts—nearly a hundred thousand dollars.

It would have been a much larger amount, but Ephraim was an incredibly good accountant. He noticed the missing funds in a matter of weeks, although it had taken him another month to finger Abraham as the culprit.

That was because he’d tried so hard to convince himself it was one of the support staff.Ephraim had even considered the cleaning lady as a suspect before finally confronting Abraham. Guilt-ridden, the man had voluntarily retired from the business to avoid being prosecuted.

Ephraim, being who he was, had forgiven his friend.

“I thought things were fine now,” Georgia said, trying not to sound as dismayed as she felt. “That you put everything right without endangering the business.”

Ephraim took off his glasses again, wiping them needlessly. “I managed to replace the missing funds. But it was only a matter of time before word got around that Abraham left the business under a cloud.”

Georgia put her head in her hands. “The rumor mill at the synagogue.”

Her father sighed. “It was naïve of me to believe they wouldn’t find out. These old birds are better than the CIA. I’ve lost half my clients.”

All the air left her lungs in a rush. “What? But you put the money back.”

Ephraim had raided his retirement fund and mortgaged the house to do it, but he’d replaced every cent Abraham had stolen.

Her dad rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. “Confidence is everything in the accounting business. We were charged with handling people’s money, the fruits of their labor, their very future. Abraham violated that trust.”

“But they’re punishingyou. He doesn’t even work there anymore!”

Sighing, Ephraim put his glasses back on. “It doesn’t matter. Even the rumor of malfeasance is enough to make people pull their accounts.”

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