“I’m not senile either.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Her calmness embarrassed me.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I’m a sixty-three-year-old woman who has raised three sons. I know exactly how a family can make you feel perfectly rational and completely furious at the same time.”
That drew another unwilling smile from me.
“I don’t know if I’m furious.”
“What are you?”
I thought about Brenda saying there was no room.
Douglas staring toward the street.
Gregory looking directly at me and saying nothing.
The children already buckled into their seats, cheerful and unaware.
“I think,” I said slowly, “I’m tired of everyone assuming I’ll be available whether they treat me well or not.”
Ellen was quiet.
“That sounds different from anger.”
“It feels different.”
“All right. Let me drive over and take a look. I won’t list anything until we speak again.”
