Chapter 6: The Sales Floor

"No cider," I said. "Thank you."

Lorna's smile held, and she lowered the tray an inch.

Behind me the bat stopped cracking, and I heard Garner's boots on the gravel.

He came around the side of the porch at a fast walk.

"Fenella. You can't just show up here."

"The education account," I said, and held up the statement. "Forty-one thousand dollars, on the second of August."

He looked at the paper, and then at Lorna.

"That account is joint," he said. "I'm allowed to use it."

"It's Poppy's college money."

"It's an investment in our family's future."

"Which family?" Maeve said, from the lawn.

Garner ignored her.

"I'll put it back," he said. "When the bonus comes in. Don't make this ugly in front of the kids."

I looked over his shoulder at the boy.

He was holding the bat in both hands, watching us with his mouth open.

"You made it ugly on Saturday," I said. "I'm only reading it out."

I folded the statement and put it in my coat.

"Monday," I said. "I'll see you at work."

He didn't ask what I meant.

On Monday morning I parked in the visitor lot of the flooring distributor where Garner had worked for eleven years.

I had been inside twice. Once for a holiday party, and once to drop off his lunch when he'd forgotten it.

Maeve had worked the night shift and slept three hours.

She came in with me anyway, in her scrubs and a gray hoodie.

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