Chapter 8: The Loan

Lyle let go first.

He didn't snatch his hand back. He just opened it.

"Jeff," I said.

Jeff stopped three boards away.

He looked at Lyle, and then he looked up at Lyle.

"Hey," he said. "Jeff Mattingly. Her husband."

"Lyle Burgess. The bride's brother."

Lyle held out his hand.

"Watch your step. Your dock's got a bad board."

Jeff shook his hand and looked down at the hole my heel had made.

"Mom said you weren't coming," he said to me.

"Your mom tried to take Evie out of daycare on Tuesday without asking me."

He blinked.

"She said she was just bringing her by."

"With her backpack."

Lyle stepped around us.

"I'm going to go find the T. rex," he said, and walked back up toward the deck.

The dock bounced a little with every step he took.

Jeff watched him go.

Then he turned to me and lowered his voice.

"There's a lockbox on the front door."

"I saw."

"Dad says it's for the cleaning service."

"Do you believe him?"

He looked up at the gray cedar house for a long time.

"I don't know," he said.

"Then ask him who owns it."

"Julie, it's the engagement party."

"I know what it is."

"Daddy!"

Evie came thundering down the dock in her dinosaur leggings.

Jeff caught her and swung her up, and for a second his whole face was just glad.

"Jeff!" Ron called from the deck. "Get up here and meet the Burgesses!"

Jeff set Evie down and went.

He didn't look back at me.

I took Evie home at four.

That week, I built the plan at my parents' kitchen table.

Every night after Evie went down, I opened the laptop and the ACORNS spreadsheet.

Every night, my mother found a reason to be in the kitchen.

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