Catherine looked at him sharply. I know that, Daniel.
It was the first time she'd used his name. Both of them noticed it.
She turned away slightly. He also made an offer, she said. on the property.
Daniel waited. He wants to buy out my share of this house.
He says the market is good right now and splitting the asset makes sense given my changing financial situation. She said the last three words the way you say something that someone else said and you are quoting it without agreeing to it.
What he means is he's watching to see if I'm going to fall and he wants to be positioned to catch the pieces. Daniel said nothing for a moment.
Then what did you say? I said I'd think about it.
She looked at him, which I won't. Good.
He said, "You don't even know the offer."
"Doesn't matter," he said.
"Some things you don't sell even when the number sounds reasonable." She stared at him.
"You sound very certain about that. My wife's parents wanted to buy back her grandmother's house the year after she died," he said.
They said the market was good. They said it was practical.
They had 10 reasons that all made sense. He paused.
I still live in that house. Noah grew up in it.
That's not a number. Catherine went completely still.
He hadn't talked about Sarah in a long time. Not to anyone who wasn't Noah.
The words had come out before he decided to say them the way things came out sometimes when you had been careful for so long that the carefulness cracked for just a moment. I'm sorry, Catherine said quietly, not filling the space with it.
Just placing it there. Don't be, he said.
It's how I know what I'm talking about. A silence that held itself with respect.
Then his phone buzzed. He looked at it.
A text from Noah's school. Early dismissal.
A water main issue. Parents notified.
I have to go get my son, he said. Of course, she said.
I'll be back this afternoon. Two hours, Daniel.
He had turned toward the truck. He stopped.
She was looking at the fence at the section still unfinished. And then she looked at him.
You don't have to come back today. The concrete needs to set anyway.
The mesh doesn't, he said. 2 hours.
She nodded. He drove.