“That’s the number of reviews,” I said. “It isn’t a complete count of stays.”
I was careful with the distinction because he had given me enough real things to be angry about. I didn’t need to help him by making claims I couldn’t support.
Dad pushed the paper away.
“This is family business.”
“It became business when you charged strangers to sleep there.”
I played the voicemail.
My father’s friendly host voice filled the kitchen.
He offered the cash price. He explained how to avoid the booking site. He said I was always working and that he handled the property.
My mother kept her eyes on his face until the message ended.
Then she asked, “The boat?”
He leaned back.
“What about it?”
“Was that the vacation payout?”
Nobody spoke.
“You told me you had money left from the county.”
“I did have a payout.”
“Did it pay for the boat?”
“Some of it.”
“And the rest?”
He rubbed his forehead.
My mother’s voice grew quieter.
“Abe. What else?”
Lindsay answered before he did.
“The preschool?”
My father looked toward the phone.
“He told us he wanted to help,” she said. “He said retirement had worked out better than he expected.”
I stared at the table.
A few months earlier, I had stood at a bus stop after a night shift because I couldn’t cover a brake repair.
I had paid the cabin’s insurance that same month.
I remembered moving money between accounts at my kitchen counter, trying to leave enough for groceries until Friday.
Dad was looking at me now.
“You’re making this sound worse than it was.”
“I’m asking where the money went.”
“I helped your sister’s children.”
“You didn’t ask me to help them. You used my house and kept it from me.”
“They’re your nephews.”
“I know who they are.”
My voice rose on that sentence. I stopped, took a drink of water, and set the glass down carefully.
“I would have liked a choice,” I said.
Lindsay was quiet for a long time.
Then she said, “I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.”
My mother looked at me as if she wanted the same answer before she asked.
I gave it to her.
“I don’t think you knew about the rental either.”
Her face loosened.
“But you knew he left Delaney waiting,” I said. “And you called me unreasonable for expecting him to keep his word.”
She looked down at the paper in her hands.
Dad stood.
“So what do you want? You’ve got your key back. You’ve embarrassed me in front of everybody.”
“I want the records. I want the income accounted for. And I want you to stop telling people you own something you don’t.”
“You’re going to drag me through court?”
“I hope we can resolve it without that. The attorney will send you the request. You can get your own advice.”
He waited, perhaps expecting a threat he could repeat later.
I didn’t give him one.
“You can’t expect me to have all that money sitting around.”
“We don’t know the final amount yet.”
“I have bills.”
“So do I.”
My mother put her glasses away with slow, precise movements.
“You have a boat,” she said.
He turned toward her.
She didn’t look up.
Behind me, Delaney’s bedroom door opened.
She stood in the hallway with her headphones around her neck and a sheet of blue construction paper in one hand.
“I need the big scissors.”
I went to the drawer and handed them to her.
She looked past me at her grandfather.
For the first time since he had arrived, he seemed to remember why we were all in my kitchen.
“Hey, kiddo.”
She held the scissors against the paper.
“Hi.”
“I’m sorry about Monday.”
I stayed beside her.
“I got mixed up,” he added.
Delaney looked at me, then back at him.
“Mom said you went to the zoo.”
My father shifted his weight.
“I did.”
“You could’ve called the school.”
“Yes,” he said.
The answer was so quiet I almost missed it.
She nodded once.
Then she asked, “Are my pictures still at the cabin?”
“Cody has them for you,” I said. “He’s keeping them safe.”
“All three?”
“All three.”
“Okay.”
She returned to her room.
My father watched the doorway after she closed it.
There was no speech from her. No clever sentence that made the adults understand themselves.
She needed scissors. She wanted her drawings. She had heard an apology and noticed the part that didn’t match what she knew.
That was enough.