Chapter 12: Dues

"June first," I said.

"June first."

I nodded.

Outside, through the lobby glass, Lyle was loading the old slide onto the trailer.

Evie was helping by holding the duct tape.

I drove home with my hands at ten and two and didn't turn on the radio.

That night I didn't open the spreadsheet.

I lay next to Evie in the dark and counted backward from June first.

Fifteen days.

On Monday, the eighteenth, I had a nine o'clock appointment with a member who wanted a car loan.

She was about fifty, in a navy blazer with a little embroidered crest on the pocket.

A tree and a flag on a golf green.

Wedgewood Hills Country Club.

"Office manager," she said, when I asked about her employer. "Membership and events. Eleven years."

I typed it into the application.

She talked the whole time I worked.

Her husband's car had died. Her daughter needed rides to softball. The club was a zoo this month.

"Wedding season," she said. "We've got one every Saturday through August. The end of this month is a big one."

I kept my eyes on my screen.

"Oh?"

"Rehearsal dinner Friday the twenty-ninth, wedding Saturday. Burgess girl. You know the Burgess trucks?"

"I've seen them around."

"Lovely family. Lovely girl."

She leaned over to look at my name plate.

Then she laughed.

"Mattingly! Oh, you're not related to Ron, are you?"

I could have said no.

Mattingly is a common enough name in Ohio.

"He's my father-in-law," I said.

Her face did something complicated.

"Oh, honey. Well, will you do me a favor? Tell him to call the office. Nicely."

"Is something wrong?"

Keep reading free with an account. Start When I Cut Off the Payments, My Mama's Boy Husband's Family Panicked from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.