But I also knew something else.
This was the man who had spent most of my life helping me without making me prove that I deserved it.
I was not going to make him stand in my backyard and justify every dollar.
“I’ll get it,” I said.
His face changed immediately.
Relief moved through it, but embarrassment stayed.
“I’ll pay you back.”
“You don’t have to.”
I went inside and opened the small safe beneath my office desk.
We kept emergency cash there.
I pulled out the money, put it together for Dad, and was about to return when Natalie appeared in the doorway behind me.
“You’re really giving him the money?”
“Yes.”
“We agreed we’d discuss major expenses.”
“He has never asked me for money before.”
