“Good.” I sighed. “The part I love the most is that the heart of the home pretty much stays the same. And that it’ll be accessible from our space, my dad’s space, and also to the rest of my family from both the front and the kitchen doors. If we get really lucky, they won’t even notice the door at the top of the stairs.”

John shrugged. “I suppose it won’t much matter if everybody’s staying up here with us anyway. First Polly, then Johnny, then the rest of them. Maybe we can just line up a row of mattresses in the hallway.”

“Stop,” I said. “The last thing I need is for you to get all grouchy on me. Let’s just take a minute and figure this out.”

John rubbed a finger back and forth across his lower lip. What had started out as slightly, adorably chapped seemed to be moving in the direction of one seriously stressed-out lip. I wondered if I should start handing John a tube of Chapstick every time he started to rub it, the way I handed my students a tissue whenever they started to pick their noses.

“What if you and I move into the trailer in the backyard?” John said. “Leave everybody in here to fend for themselves. You know how much I love those canned ham trailers. We could pretend we’re camping.”

I’d spent a few nights sleeping in that trailer when John had dragged me off to canine camp before the start of the school year. We’d had a big fight, and when I found out that my father and the trailer just happened to have followed us to camp, I packed up in a huff and relocated. I’d slept on the trailer’s tiny dinette that converted to a bed of sorts. Watching the sun rise through the pompoms on the café curtains while I tried to roll over without giving myself a bloody nose with my knees was not an experience I cared to repeat.

“What about our four-legged friends?” I said. “The kittens and Horatio would probably be fine in the trailer, but Pebbles is just starting to get comfortable in the cat room. Plus, there’s not exactly much elbow room in there for all of us, not to mention the kitty litter and the pet dishes and the food. And all the rest of the paraphernalia.”

“I didn’t factor in any of that,” John said. “I guess I was thinking the cats could stay where they are, and Horatio could either stay with us or bunk in with your dad if he preferred.” He rubbed his lower lip a few more times. “Okay, what if Polly sleeps in the trailer? Didn’t she already offer to stay out there?”