Page 50 of Rune
“Where have you been?” she asked as soon as I cut the engine.
“Overseeing the glass installation at your place. Your old windows were all rotted to hell.”
“You… what? I didn’t set that up.”
“No, I did. Did Chip’s windows too.”
“Wait… but you didn’t have key—” She cut off at the smirk I sent her. “Oh, right. Okay. Well, thanks. Send me a copy of the receipts so I can pay you back.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no? You can’t pay for my windows.”
“I can. I did. It’s done.”
“But—”
“I get that you’re the one always doing shit, handling things, but this is done. It’s handled. You don’t have to think about it.”
To that, she glanced away, then back. “You didn’t save me from thinking about it. You just changed what part of it I’m worrying about.”
“What do you have to worry about?”
“How to pay you back.”
“You’re not paying me back.”
“It had to cost a small fortune.”
“I have enough money.”
“It’s not your responsibility.”
“Baby, just let something be done for you without analyzing the shit out of it. I saw something that needed to be done. I did it. Case closed.”
“I… I have a really hard time accepting that,” she admitted.
“I noticed. Just the usual eldest daughter shit, or did you have to be the grown-up when you were a kid?”
“Both, I guess. My parents worked around the clock. Anything that needed to be done, I kind of had to do.”
“Are they still in the picture?”
“They divorced as soon as Sofia was out of the house. Our father moved on with the woman he always claimed was just a friend.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. We aren’t on speaking terms. I mean, Sofia is. She’s too sweet to cut anyone off. I’m… not.”
“What about your mom?”
“Mom died a few years back. She had weak lungs already, but then caught pneumonia… and, yeah.”
Christ.
She really had a rough couple of years.
She’d lost (or was losing) her entire support system.
