“Please let me get it. You’ve done so much for me already.”
I wasn’t accustomed to letting a woman pick up the check, but something in her eyes made me relent.
“Thank you, Mila.”
For a moment, I thought I’d done the wrong thing based on the look on her face. Before I could speak, she got up and walked over to where the cash register sat on the counter.
I waited for the waitress to bring my to-go box, and then stood to join her.
“There must be some mistake,” I heard her say when the kid at the register handed her back her credit card.
“Sorry, ma’am. It was declined.”
While she rummaged through her purse, probably looking for cash, I quietly slid a fifty-dollar bill in the kid’s direction.
She looked up when he handed me the change.
“I’m mortified,” she said when we got back out to the truck.
“Maybe you should give ’em a call. Sometimes they decline a card if someone’s traveling.”
She nodded but didn’t take out her phone.
11
Mila
There was a very slim chance that Decker was right. There was a much larger chance that I was over my limit. If that was the case, I couldn’t bear the embarrassment of having the conversation with my bank in such close proximity to him.
He started the engine, but didn’t put the truck in gear.
“It’s been a hard year,” I said, looking out the passenger window, too embarrassed to look directly at him.
“You don’t owe me any explanation.”
I shook my head. The man had been so incredibly nice to me, but he wasn’t interested in hearing the sob stories of what my life had been like. “Right.” I closed my eyes, willing the tears filling them to dry up in the Texas heat.
“Mila, look at me,” I heard him murmur, and slowly turned my head. “I got some more bad news earlier.”
I waited for him to continue, mesmerized by the kindness I saw once again in his green eyes.
“The place where your sister was living, did you say it was your grandfather’s house?”
“That’s right.”
“Someone broke in and trashed the place. They were obviously looking for something. Do you have any idea what it might be?”
What in the hell had Sybil gotten herself into? Every worry and fear I’d had in the last two months were suddenly justified. Yet, the truth was, my sister and I had never been close. I knew little to nothing about her life. I shook my head.
“If I remember correctly, you said your grandfather passed earlier this year.”
“In January.”
“Were you in contact with your sister since that time?”
“Yes. I mean, we didn’t talk often, but I was taking care of my grandfather’s debts, so I heard from her when she received statements.”
“Was your sister working?”