Chapter 5
Leo came by the next morning to collect a box of old camping gear Daniel had promised him. He found Daniel in the kitchen, making coffee with the expression of a man negotiating with a machine.
"Where's Mom?" Leo asked.
"At work."
"On a Monday? That's new."
Daniel's mouth tightened. "Your mother has been distant lately."
Leo leaned against the counter. "Distant from what?"
"From us. From the family."
The answer came too quickly. Daniel seemed to hear it after he said it, because he looked down at the coffee grounds scattered across the counter. Leo was twenty-six, old enough not to accept the version of a story that made one parent sound unreasonable by default.
"She drove Nina to class Saturday," he said. "And she brought soup. What exactly didn't she do?"
Daniel opened the refrigerator, then closed it. "She has decided I am the villain because I helped someone from work."
"Someone?"
"Elise. She is going through a divorce."
Leo's expression shifted. "The woman you were with at Cedar & Finch? Nina saw you two there last week."
Daniel looked startled. "There is nothing happening."
"That isn't the same as nothing being wrong."
By the time Mara arrived at the arts center, her phone held three missed calls from Daniel and one message from Leo: Dad says you're distant. I told him that isn't an answer. Are you okay?
She stood in the supply closet among rolled canvas and paint tins, reading it twice. It did not solve anything. But it was the first time someone in the family had not quietly placed the burden of calm back in her hands.
That evening, she met Owen and two volunteers at the east wall. The brick was cracked, the light uneven, and the city permit would take longer than anyone hoped. Mara measured the wall herself, holding one end of the tape while Owen held the other.
"You still see composition quickly," he said.
"I used to."
"That is not the same thing as losing it."
At home, Daniel had made pasta. The sauce was too salty, but he had set two bowls on the table. Mara took one and sat down.
"Leo called me," he said.
"I know."
"He thinks I'm not listening."
"Are you?"
Daniel's gaze moved to the empty chair across from him. "I don't know how we got here."
Mara thought of Elise at the booth, her own coffee in front of her, Daniel arriving with cinnamon rolls as though the morning had room for everyone. "You got here one ordinary choice at a time."
His phone lit up on the table. Elise's name appeared, followed by a message preview: The lender moved the deadline. Can you talk?
Daniel reached for the phone.
Mara did not stop him. That was the new part. She picked up her bowl, carried it to the sink, and let him decide what kind of man he was when no one made the decision easier.