Chapter 2
I did not find another woman at our anniversary restaurant. I found my husband, his sister Maren, her husband, and a realtor.
The realtor had a folder open between them. Grant stood when he saw me.
"Eliza."
I looked at the four place settings. "So this is the dinner you canceled."
Maren closed her eyes. The realtor began gathering papers.
I said, "Please don't. I want to know what house we're selling."
Grant answered. "The lake cabin."
That closed one question and opened a much worse one.
The cabin on Lake Cumberland had belonged to Grant and Maren's father. When he died, he left it equally to both children.
Legally, it was theirs. Emotionally, I had spent twenty-four summers there.
Our children learned to swim from that dock. I painted the kitchen twice. Grant and I celebrated anniversaries there when money was tight.
For years, Maren had wanted to sell. I always asked Grant to wait.
Then the roof estimate came in. Twenty-six thousand dollars.
The septic system was also near the end of its life.
Maren said quietly, "I can't keep paying half for a place I use six days a year."
I looked at Grant. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I did."
He had.
Three months earlier, he mentioned the roof over breakfast. I said, "We are not selling Dad's place over a roof." Then I left for work.
Two weeks later he tried again. I said we could discuss it after summer.
Apparently "after summer" had become my way of ending conversations I did not want.
That did not excuse this dinner.
Grant admitted he told Maren they would meet with a realtor first, get real numbers, then bring the decision to me.
"Bring the decision to me?"
He heard it too late.
Maren said, "Eliza, I thought you knew we were meeting."
I believed her.
Then she added something I did not expect.
"I've been afraid to bring this up around you since Owen moved away."
Our youngest son had taken a job in Oregon the previous year.
The cabin had become the place I kept talking about everyone "coming back to."
Maren had noticed before I had.
The cabin was no longer only a property problem. I had been using it as proof that our family still had a center.
May you like
Grant had hidden the sale conversation because he was tired of fighting that grief.
Neither of us had actually been talking about the roof.
