Julian Junk was often teased about his last name and his father's occupation as a garbageman. Mackensie Keller grew up privileged and spoiled. As teens, Junk and Mickey make plans for their future, but when Mickey is sent off to boarding school, he tells Junk their parents are probably right -- they just don't belong together.<br><br>Back in town ten years later, Mickey is all grown up. He and Junk reconnect as adults, but so much was said, and so much has changed. Though he asks for forgiveness, which Junk grants, though old romantic feelings are quickly rekindled, Mickey is reluctant to bring a new man into his young daughter's life after his last relationship's failure. He's also harboring a secret, one that threatens to spoil upcoming Thanksgiving plans.<br><br>Once Junk discovers the source of Mickey's dilemma, he devises a crafty plan to make everything right. Will it work out? Will Mickey accept his help, and can the two of them make a go of it with so much stacked against them?

One Man's Junk

Pops checked our mail at the end of our workday. His priority was bills and supermarket fliers. Mine was the refrigerator or the john, depending how long I’d gone without food or the other thing.


“Well, well, well. What have we here?”


Pops got my immediate attention any time he sounded like a Disney cartoon villain. The orange juice container partway to my mouth, I put it down, intrigued. “I don’t know. What?”


The breeze from the fan of cash he flapped in my face gave me chills, and not because it cooled me off after another day of higher than average temperatures.


“So it says. I came into some cash, Mr. Junk, and figured the right thing to do was to pay you back that money my parents took from you all those years ago.”


“Better late than never.” Pops fanned himself, now, like some gloating southern belle.


Chapter 30