“Can you repeat exactly what you want?” I asked her. “Slowly. So I understand it properly.”
Rachel blinked, thrown for half a second, then recovered smoothly. “I want you to consider letting us have the house. Tyler will help you find something smaller, somewhere more appropriate for this next chapter of your life.”
I raised one eyebrow and said nothing at all, letting the phrase hang there in the cold morning air between us.
Rachel shifted her weight slightly on the porch step.
“Rachel.”
“Yes?”
“I’d like a moment to myself. Could you wait in your car, please?”
Her eyebrows lifted in mild surprise. “I really do think we should finish this conversation properly.”
“We will,” I said. “I simply need a few hours first.”
She hesitated a moment, then gave me a small, satisfied smile, as though my politeness were itself a kind of quiet surrender.
“Of course. Take all the time you need.”
