Read Redemption For Two for Free Online Page B

bottom scrubbed, Mr. Oliver. And you ought to replace those zincs pretty soon.”
    “How’s the bottom paint?”
    “Might get the summer out of it if you take care.”
    “How much to scrub her down?”
    “Three dollars a foot, ten for each zinc, plus costs. She’s what...sixty feet? Hundred and eighty, then eight flat zincs on the rudders and water plate, and a pair of clamp-ons for the shafts at twenty per. Be three hundred, time I finish.”
    “And she’ll be ready by...?”
    “Monday lunch,” Mickey said. “I’ll be here at seven.”
    Oliver nodded toward the barge. “What about that weld job?” he asked.
    “That’s between me and your guys. Told him fifty an hour.”
    “You get all this shit done, I’ll see there’s a bonus in it,” Oliver said. “You don’t, I’ll be pissed.”
    “I’m a man of my word, Mr. Oliver.”
    Mickey didn’t get home until after dark, but he had another three hundred in his pocket by then, plus a fifty dollar tip from Oliver. And that was aside from Davidson’s money. Half for the props from Jones and that much again from the seawall guys. Plus another three for Oliver’s boat cleaning on Monday, and a buck fifty on top of that from Jones when Mickey finished reinstalling on the other two boats in the afternoon.
    With the run to Miami, which was a cake job in spite of his bitching, he’d have seven hundred dollars cash before the week-end. And the good news was that the seawall guys were going to have him do some repair and reinforcing on their battered jib crane, which would take two or three days, although at slightly reduced rates from the emergency repair at Oliver’s house. Maybe seven or eight hundred more by the time he got done late in the week. First no money at all, and suddenly he was up a grand and a half. Things were definitely looking up especially after the long dry spell after Ponz laid him off.
    The baby was already asleep when he got done unloading the truck, but Sandy was up. She’d brought the roses home from work and arranged them in a green vase on the kitchen table. “I made spaghetti,” she said.
    “Let me get cleaned up,” he said. “I smell like a horse.”
    “You want a glass of wine? We’ve got some of that Chianti you like.”
    “Perfect,” he said.
    Sandy sat with him while he ate, sipping a little wine. She was barefoot, and had on her glasses and the thin cotton granny gown with tiny blue flowers on it. Her hair was still damp from her shower, which she would have taken after Cindy was safely in bed. Mickey liked girls in glasses. He thought about the girl at Oliver’s. The thin one. Pretty as hell, and an engineer, they said. She wore glasses, too.
    “The rent was due yesterday,” Sandy said eventually, like she hated to remind him or something. “We only have six hundred dollars in the bank, Mick. We’re low on groceries, and I’m not sure I can face the landlord again. It’s so embarrassing.”
    “How much we need?” he asked.
    She sighed. “I hate this,” she said sadly, wiping at her eyes. “We don’t have enough to get by, Mick. We never...”
    “How much?”
    Sandy sat back in the chair looking at her hands folded in her lap. “It’s endless, honey. We need three hundred more just for the rent, and a hundred for groceries, and the light bill is a week overdue, and...”
    “I got enough,” he said, thinking about the money in his jeans and the three hundred and some from Davidson. “I’ll leave it on the dresser, okay?”
    “What do you mean, enough?”
    “Enough,” he said.
    “Where did it come from?”
    “Grows on trees down around here,” he said, finishing the spaghetti. “Didn’t you know that, Sandy? Money’s just lying on the ground.”
    “I mean it,” she said. “You didn’t sell your bike or something, did you? I don’t want you to...”
    “Didn’t have to,” he said. “I will, if that’s what it takes, but I’ve got some things cooking right now. Maybe I can keep that