He knew they would be, of course. What he wondered was whether Rob knew. As with many other things in their marriage that struck Perry as unusual, Phoebe had taken the reins of the entire building project. “How much over?”
Phoebe flicked her head. “Doesn’t matter.”
“That bad?”
“Just forget it, Perry.” Now she was upset with him.
He scratched his head. “Listen, I wouldn’t worry about the lake Club membership. You guys use mine quite a bit anyway.”
“No, we don’t.”
They did. Every summer, in fact, but Perry did not say this. His bicep still smarted. Instead he said, “Just tell Rob that you want to wait until the house is done. That you want to keep a buffer.” He watched his sister’s eyebrows rise and fall, as they did whenever she was concentrating.
“I just ordered a three-thousand-dollar bathroom vanity. He won’t believe that.”
Three thousand? “Then blame it on me. Say it was my suggestion.”
Phoebe uncrossed her arms. “Well, that he’d believe.”
The doorbell rang and as he watched little sister trot toward the door, Perry found his hand involuntarily pressed to his pants pocket where he carried his wallet. It was only a matter of time, he feared, before she would be asking for more than advice.
Amelia and Emma flurried across the foyer in his direction. “I was starting to worry.”
“Hello to you, too.” Amelia pecked his cheek. “The car was low on gas. I was on the other side of town, near the Exxon.”
Perry flinched. “Three forty-nine a gallon?”
Amelia held up her hand. “I know, I know. Which is why I drove over to the other one, but it was closed. Which meant I had to drive farther south because at that point I was on empty.”
Perry closed his eyes. Amelia always did this. Ran the car until the gas light went on, then drove around without a care in the world, coasting on hope and fumes. With Emma, no less.
She smiled up at him. “Relax. We’re here.”
He knew better than to remind her of the hour. “I’m glad,” he said instead. And he meant it. By comparison to his family, his wife was a Zen temple.
Beside her, Emma gazed across the crowd shyly, unlike her flagrant cousins, who galloped by once more, so involved in their horseplay they didn’t even notice her arrival. Emma watched them, with a faint smile. Sometimes Perry wondered if they’d done her a disservice as an only child. “How was school, honey?”
“Fine.”
“Anything fun happen today?”
“Nope.”
He should’ve asked an open-ended question. That’s what the article in Parenting magazine had advised. “Coping with Teens” had been the title. Perry needed some coping strategies. He looked to Amelia, who hadn’t even seemed to notice Emma’s curt replies. But she wouldn’t have noticed. Emma still talked to her, if in exasperated tones. Perry could have settled for exasperation.
“You’re here!” Phoebe joined them, and Emma burst into a smile at the sight of her aunt. Perry couldn’t believe the transformation. “How’s school?” Phoebe asked.
“Pretty good. But I can’t wait for summer. I’m working this year as a counselor at our clubhouse camp.”
Emma had gotten a job as a counselor? He’d heard nothing of that. Perry spun around to his wife, who seemed to already know all of this. Why had no one told him? When Phoebe lifted her hand and Emma high-fived it, Perry’s heart gave a little.
“That’s awesome! I worked at a theater camp when I was your age. I studied drama in college, as one of my minors.”
Phoebe was still studying drama, as far as Perry could tell.
“I can’t wait. My campers will be in first grade, so that should be fun.”
“They’ll love you!” Phoebe gushed. Perry had to agree. But before he could ask Emma about her summer job, there came a small commotion by the front door. His father waved a hand. “Everyone, Jake’s here!”
With that, his family abandoned him and joined the stampede for the front door like lemmings. Perry would stay right where he was, thank you very much, and watch from a civilized distance.
It was then he noticed his grandmother creeping up behind the outskirts of the crowd. Elsie held her hands out to her sides, shuffling unsteadily as she went. “Nana!” he called.
Just in time he got to her and guided her back to her chair. “I’ll ask Jake to come to you,” he promised. How typical of Jake to make a scene of an entrance, with no thought to its consequence. Perry was just about to find his little brother and tell him just that, when he heard his name.
“You must be Perry.” He turned.
Perry had only ever taken one art class in the entirety of his comprehensive education, a required and impractical elective. But for the first time in all the years since, it made sense. The woman who stood before him was a subject stepped off the canvas of a Baroque painting and into his parents’ living room. Perry exhaled.
“I’m Olivia.” She extended her hand and Perry found himself taking it. He glanced down at their entwined fingers. Hers were diminutive in his own. When he looked back up, she was studying him curiously. Quickly, Perry let go.
“Excuse me,” he stammered. “You’re Olivia.”
“I am.” She laughed and swept her dark hair back. Perry had never cared for short hair on women, and yet he found himself fighting an urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear for her. “And this is my daughter, Luci.”
An elfin child peeked out from behind Olivia’s knees then hid behind her mother again. The spell was broken.
No one had said a thing about a child. It was then he saw the dog.
Behind the two of them stood an oversized mongrel of a dog. “Oh, and that’s Buster.” Buster gazed up at him, a viscous trail of drool dangling from his cavernous mouth. “He’s our therapeutic rescue dog.”
Perry blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“Well, he’s a trained therapy dog. But first he was a rescue dog. From Texas.” As if that explained what the giant canine was doing in his parents’ Connecticut living room, at his grandmother’s ninety-seventh birthday party. Olivia bent to rub its floppy ears fondly. “Though I’m not sure who rescued who.”
Ah, she was one of those.
“So, you rescue dogs?”
“Just this one. But I’d rescue them all if I could. I could own a hundred! They’re just so grateful.”
Perry cleared his throat. The new girl was an anthropomorphic soon-to-be canine hoarder. Flustered, he glanced about for his family. Had no one noticed the four-legged intruder in the living room? But true to form, Phoebe and Jake were huddled together by the door, chatting away as if nobody else in the world existed. His parents, having already welcomed this circus, had twirled off into the gray-haired crowd, probably to pour more champagne. Just what the seniors needed.
Thankfully, Amelia rescued him. “Olivia! We’ve heard so much about you.”
They had? Perry focused on keeping a smart distance between himself and the encroaching dog. He was allergic to dogs. Already he could feel the ominous tickle at the back of his throat.
But Emma was besotted. She kneeled beside Luci. “Your dog is so big. And so cute!”