Page 126 of The Man Next Door
She took it. It was for seven hundred dollars. Surprise and anger cycloned through her. It was so little compared to what he’d taken. If he was looking for gratitude, he was going to be disappointed.
He spoke before she could say anything. “I know it’s not much. But I wanted to prove to her, to both of you, that I’m going to make things right.”
“Why didn’t you give it to her?” Silly question. Bree had blocked him from her phone. She wouldn’t welcome him at work any more than she’d take a call from him.
“Frankly, I figured if I showed up at Starbucks, she’d throw hot coffee on me and end up getting fired.”
“If she did, I wouldn’t blame her,” Zona said.
He nodded, dropped his gaze. “I wouldn’t, either. I’ve joined Gamblers Anonymous, Zona.”
If only he’d done that before he’d taken a wrecking ball to their lives.
“I’m sorry for the hurt I caused you and Bree. We had a good thing, and I screwed it up.”
“Yeah, you did,” she said.
Louise chose that moment to come swinging down thehall, ready to greet Martin. She stopped at the sight of Gary standing at her front door. “Gary,” she said in disgust.
“Hi, Louise. How are you?” he ventured.
“On crutches, that’s how I am,” she said, her words clipped. “Why are you here?”
“I’m working on changing my life for the better. I brought a check for Bree,” he added, probably fearing Zona wouldn’t share that info.
“Good. I’m glad to see you’re trying to make up for your past mistakes.”
Mistakes. Was that what you called what he’d done? “Gary was just leaving,” Zona said, and started to shut the door.
“Zona, wait,” he begged.
“What?” She kept her hold on the door, ready to slam it.
Louise hovered behind her. Darling came running up and Zona stepped outside to finish their conversation.
“I need you to know how sorry I am, and I’m hoping you can, somehow, forgive me for what I did. I honestly didn’t mean to hurt you,” Gary said, sounding so sincere.
“But you did.”
“I was going to replace the money.”
She didn’t bother to ask how. “But you didn’t.”
“It’s a sickness.”
“And you let it grow until it killed everything we had, Gary. How am I supposed to get past that?”Break the rearview mirror, rev the engine.
“Maybe you can’t. I don’t blame you.” He pointed to the check in her hand. “But I’m going to spend the rest of my life making up for everything, I promise.”
It was a beginning. He had good intentions, but who knew if he’d follow through on them. It was a lot of money to pay back.
She held up the check. “I’ll give this to Bree.” She didn’t add a thank-you. It wasn’t a gift.
Louise was seated at the dining table, on a chair nearest the door, when Zona stepped back in. “Okay, what was all that about?” she asked.
“He wanted me to hug him and tell him what a good boy he is,” Zona said, and showed Louise the check.
“It’s something, and something is better than nothing.”
