had Justine, our eldest, but I still had my fair share of pride. I get it.”
“So you’ll let me reimburse you?” she asked hopefully.
He allowed himself a small smile at her persistence, but he shook his head. “I’ll tell you what the parts are worth. You can take repayment up with Harry.”
Which meant she had yet another battle on her hands, but so be it.
Mike pulled open the top drawer of a beaten-up filing cabinet. After a few seconds he extracted a folder and opened it.
“Okay. The gasket itself was fifty, but you’ve got an aluminum head, which had to be resurfaced before the gasket was replaced, so that was three hundred. Then there was five liters of oil at thirty, a new oil filter at twenty-five for a grand total of four-oh-five.” He glanced at her. “Which Harry can well afford, by the way.”
Pippa pulled out her phone and made a note of the figure on the notepad app. “So can I. Thanks for this, Mike. I appreciate it.”
“My pleasure. I appreciate you taking the time to drop in. Not sure I’ll feel the same once Harry hears what went down, but I’m still bigger than he is so he can suck it up.”
Pippa wasn’t too sure about him being bigger than Harry—it looked like a pretty close call to her—but she offered Mike her hand, said thanks once again, then pushed a dozing Alice outside. She paused, thinking about how Harry had shouldered four hundred and five dollars on her behalf without so much as batting an eyelid, yet his best friend wouldn’t even pick up the phone to discuss his daughter’s welfare.
Someone sure picked the wrong hell-raiser to fall into bed with.
It was a dumb thought and she pushed it away the moment it occurred to her. It wasn’t as though she’d ever had a choice between Steve and Harry—Harry hadn’t even been around when she’d started going out with Steve. He’d been on holiday, touring the U.S., and she and Steve had been seeing each other for nearly a month by the time he returned home.
She could still remember the day she’d first set eyes on him. He’d walked in the door of Steve’s place, two small silver rings shining in his right earlobe, tattoos black against tanned arms, and more than a little intimidating in a plain black T-shirt, worn jeans and steel-toed boots. Here comes trouble had been her first thought. Then he’d smiled and she’d seen the mischief, curiosity and intelligence in his eyes and she’d realized he was trouble—just not the kind she’d first anticipated.
Alice shifted, making the stroller rock, and Pippa snapped to. She had things to do. She didn’t have time to stand around lollygagging. Especially not over Harry.
Her step brisk, she headed for the supermarket.
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