Chương 8
Now he looked like he had forgotten the rule.
I leaned against one of the porch posts.
The anger I had carried all afternoon had nowhere clean to go anymore.
Jenna was still responsible for what she had done.
That had not changed.
But the picture had changed.
It was harder to hate someone efficiently once you could see the panic underneath the damage.
Mark stared at her.
“Did you use our home-equity line?”
“No.”
He breathed out.
“Did you open anything in my name?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Jenna.”
“I swear.”
He studied her for a long moment.
Then he looked at me.
“I need to check.”
“Check.”
He nodded.
Jenna’s face tightened.
“You believe him over me?”
Mark turned.
“He didn’t lie to me every morning for five months.”
She recoiled.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“I was scared.”
“So was I when you told me the renovation was going over budget.”
“I know.”
“You watched me sell stock.”
Her eyes dropped.
“I know.”
“You watched me call my brother and ask for eight grand.”
“I know.”
“You watched me cancel our trip.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
She pressed her lips together.
The front door opened behind us.
Eli stood there holding his backpack.
“Dad?”
I straightened.
“Yeah?”
“Caroline said the buyers are ready.”
He glanced at Jenna.
Then at Mark.
“Are we still staying tonight?”
The question struck harder than it should have.
I looked at the cottage.
At the railing I had repaired the previous spring.
At the window Zoe had decorated with paper snowflakes in December because she insisted Malibu still deserved winter.
At the front door where Eli’s height marks were penciled along the inside frame.
Selling had felt like a business decision six weeks earlier.
Now it felt like something else.
Not necessarily wrong.
Just heavier.
“Go inside with Zoe,” I told him.
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
He nodded and disappeared.
Jenna watched the door close.
“You really are selling it.”
“Yes.”
“Because of me?”
“Not only because of you.”
“What does that mean?”
I looked toward Caroline down by the terrace.
She was speaking with the buyers, giving us more privacy than we deserved.
“It means this place stopped feeling simple a long time ago.”
Jenna crossed her arms.
“Nothing is simple.”
“No.”
“But that’s why you bought it.”
I looked at her.
She seemed to regret saying it.
“For your kids,” she added.
“I know why I bought it.”
“Then why sell?”
My father looked up.
It was the first time anyone had asked me without accusation.
I rubbed my thumb over the edge of my watchband.
“Because I’m barely here.”
“That’s your job.”
“Partly.”
I watched a gull drop something onto the driveway and then attack it with unnecessary violence.
“I kept picking up shifts after the divorce because extra money felt safer than extra time.”
Nobody interrupted.
“I told myself I was doing it for Eli and Zoe.”
Mark looked at me.
“Weren’t you?”
“Sometimes.”
I shrugged.
“Sometimes the hospital was easier than going home.”
Jenna’s face softened despite herself.
My father looked down at his hands.
“I don’t know what to do with them some nights.”
“With who?”
“My kids.”
I laughed quietly.
“That sounded terrible.”
Jenna almost smiled.
“You’re a surgeon.”
“Exactly.”
“You can remove somebody’s gallbladder but can’t entertain a six-year-old?”
“I can remove a gallbladder because the gallbladder doesn’t ask why the moon follows the car.”
Mark actually laughed.
It came out abruptly and disappeared just as fast.
Jenna looked toward the closed door.
“Zoe asks that?”
“Every time we drive at night.”
“What do you tell her?”
“That the moon is spying on us.”
“That’s terrible parenting.”
“It works.”
For a few seconds, nobody was fighting.
Then Mark’s phone buzzed.
He looked down.
The ordinary sound pulled all of us back.
His face changed as he read.
“What?”
Jenna’s shoulders tensed.
He turned the phone toward her.
“Chase says the card is locked.”
She closed her eyes.
“What did you do?”
“I requested a fraud review.”
Her eyes opened.
“You what?”
“I’m checking everything.”
“You can’t just lock it.”
“It’s in both our names.”
“I have autopays on that card.”
“Good.”
“That’s not good.”
“It is if we don’t know what you’ve been charging.”
Her voice rose.
“I told you how much.”
“You told me after telling me six.”
“I corrected it.”
“You got caught.”
She stared at him.
My father stood.
“Not in front of the kids.”
“They’re inside.”
“They can hear.”
Mark ran both hands over his face.
“Fine.”
He lowered his voice.
“I’m going through every account tonight.”
Jenna nodded stiffly.
“And I want your passwords.”
Her jaw set.
“Mark.”
“All of them.”
“You’re not my father.”
“No.”
His voice cracked slightly.
“I’m the idiot who thought we had a shared life.”
That landed.
Jenna looked away.
My father cleared his throat.
“Maybe everybody should cool off before making decisions.”
Mark stared at him.
“With respect, Don, I think cooling off is how we got here.”
My father flinched at the use of his name.
He had never liked being addressed directly by his son-in-law.
Normally he corrected him with a joke.
This time he did not.
The front door opened again.
Caroline stepped onto the porch.
“Sorry to interrupt.”
She looked at me.
“The buyers have another appointment.”
“Of course.”
“I can bring them through quickly.”
I nodded.
“Do it.”
Jenna stepped aside.
Caroline paused before entering.
“There’s one other thing.”
“What?”
“The couple asked whether the property will be delivered vacant.”
Jenna laughed under her breath.
“Apparently the universe has timing.”
Caroline ignored it.
I looked at her.
“Yes.”
“By closing?”
“Before then.”
She nodded.
“I’ll make that clear.”
She went inside.
A few seconds later, the buyers entered from the patio.
May you like
They moved through the living room politely, trying not to stare at the family crisis scattered between the luggage and the soda stain.
The woman in white linen stopped near the hallway.
