He moved closer to the desk until I could smell the stale tobacco on his jacket.

“I knew you were getting ready to quit,” he said.

“I saw you looking at school job postings on your phone on your lunch break.”

“You spent your own savings just to punish me for leaving,” I said.

“I gave you what you had coming,” Dale whispered.

“Now get out of my shop.”

By eight thirty the porch bulb had lit the concrete of the driveway in a yellow circle.

Noah and Lily sat on two upside-down plastic milk crates next to four green dishpans.