Derek poured the water finally. He put a mug in front of Lauren and one in front of Jonah and kept one for himself. He did not touch her. He was not ready for touch to mean more than it could pay for.
“The money,” he said. “The tickets weren’t free. We’ve been moving numbers around the transmission for two months. If you had a couple thousand I didn’t know about, I need that in the room too.”
Lauren closed her eyes. “Ruth left me fourteen thousand. Not in the will they read out loud. In a transfer she set up the year before she died, with a note in the drawer. ‘For Jonah’s schooling, or his start, or whatever he needs that I won’t be here to argue about. Lauren will know.’ Claire knew. I put it in an account with my name on it. I told myself I was keeping it safe from my own household budget, which has a way of eating things. I spent a little over two thousand on the tickets this week. The rest is still there. I was going to tell Jonah about it on the plane, which is another thing I will have to live with, that I was going to hand him his grandmother’s money at altitude so he couldn’t look at me for long.”
Jonah laughed once, short and without humor. “Of course you were.”
“You can be angry,” she said.
“I am angry. I’m also not surprised. That’s worse.”