Page 45 of Her Property

Now it was his turn for a coolness to pass over him. The very thought of his mother was enough to send him into a tailspin of wounded rage most times. And he’d already thought of her more than once today. But having to talk about her—even to Cat— wasn’t something he wanted to do. Still, he bit off the word. “Yes.”

“Were they good people, your grandparents?”

“The best people.”

Cat was quiet. She looked at him like she wanted him to continue. So he did. He told Cat about the two of them; how him and James used to stay with them every summer until the year his mom dropped them off and never came back. He was eleven, James nine. He talked about how his grandfather had run the camp for nearly thirty years but stopped when they moved in for good.

“Why did he shut the camp?”

Jake frowned.

“Where are you going with this?” he asked.

She considered for a moment, sitting up straight. Then she sipped her wine. Stiffly, as if she was bracing herself. “I think Alfred doesn’t need to sue you. But something is making him pursue this with a doggedness that doesn’t make sense. And something Alfred told me himself, was that if something seems like it doesn’t make sense, it’s because you can’t see the whole truth. So it would help me if you answered all my questions.”

For a moment, Jake’s heart had lifted. Then it plummeted like a stone.

There was no point. Alfred would never back down. And the last thing Jake wanted to do was turn up old stones that were meant to stay down.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked. His voice was colder than he meant it to be.

“I told you, I think the lawsuit is frivolous.”

“But still—it’s not like you know me well enough to help me like this.”

That flicker passed by again. “You’re right, I don’t. But I do know Alfred. I care about him, and this lawsuit isn’t good for him. His health has been poor for a few years, but I’m actually worried about him now. He doesn’t need the added stress.”

He had the feeling that just like Cat had said, Cat wasn’t sharing the whole truth.

“Is that really why?” he asked.

For a moment Cat looked at him with her eyes like lasers. She was angry.

So he was right.

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, looking down at the remnants of her dinner. “I want to show Alfred I’m not a total screw-up, okay?”

“I’m sure he doesn’t think that.”

“Of course he does. It’s why I’m here. I made a colossal mistake, and he sent me here to think about what I did.”

“Or he sent you here because he cares about you,” Jake said.

Cat scowled.

“Maybe you’re trying to help him because you want to do the right thing,” he said. “You said it yourself, you want to help people, right?”

Her scowl deepened. “You have quite the steel-trap memory. But yes, you’re right. And what the hell else am I going to do up here, anyway?”

Her eyes met his for a moment after she said that and she blushed furiously as the unspoken words went between them.

She sighed. “Anyway, the camp you’re setting up seems like a good thing. And I’d hate to see this ridiculous dispute derail it.”

Jake looked at her, wanting to tell her it was too late. That even if somehow Alfred came around, Jake couldn’t make the camp happen. He wasn’t good enough. He’d never been good enough. He’d let everybody down and it was a joke he thought starting the camp would fix it.

“Do you think I’m worth helping?” Jake asked. The words came out before he could stop them.

She stared at him a fraction too long. “I hope so,” she said. “Considering I’m sitting here in nothing but a robe in your kitchen.”

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