“Hmm,” grumbled Al. “And where’s the money for the bike?”

“You’re not getting any money for the bike,” said Fiona. “I saw Mr. Pennypacker today and he told me that bike was my aunt’s. My aunt left everything but the fishing gear to us so that bike is ours as you well know. I’m still not convinced how you ended up with it, if you stole it or—”

“STOLE it!” roared Al. “I never stole anything in my life. Listen, you kids have got to stop thinking I go around stealing bikes. Mother of God! I worked on it as a favor for her. It had burst a tire. That twenty dollars was just to cover my costs.”

“How do I know that’s true?” asked Fiona.

“You don’t,” said Al. “But how do I know this little arrangement you’ve dreamt up isn’t going to land me in big trouble? I don’t. I guess we’re just going to have to trust each other. To a certain degree. But hey, if you can’t trust me, no skin off my nose. We can end the deal right here. I didn’t ask for any of this.” He started to close the door but before he could, Fiona swiftly opened the food container to display Marlin’s delicious-looking food. The aroma of pork chops in thick mushroom gravy and potatoes and coleslaw drifted up. Even she wanted to stick a finger in and start tasting things.

“Twenty dollars a week and dinner and you absorb the cost for the bike repair since it still feels to me like you tried to sell me a bike that was already mine,” said Fiona.

Al thought for a minute but the pork chops won out. He took the food container without another word.

Fiona turned on her heel and left before he changed his mind.

She biked home to her own dinner.

When they’d all settled at the kitchen table, Fiona lifted a water glass up and said, “To our first week. So far so good.”

“So far so good,” the others repeated, and then the girls dove into Marlin’s delicious food.

“The thing I’m most proud of,” Marlin said, “is that nothing you’re eating comes from Mom’s recipes. Or Mrs. Weatherspoon’s! Or even the internet. I’m tweaking everything. I’m developing my own cooking style. And I think I fixed the almond cherry cake recipe so it doesn’t end up so goopy! This one has pineapple as well as cherries but I drained the cherries and tossed them in flour before adding them and I added a pineapple-coconut mélange to the bottom of the pan.”

“Oooo, mélange,” teased Natasha. “You even use cooking words.”

“I’m not sure that’s a cooking term,” said Marlin seriously. “I think I may have made that one up but it should be a cooking term if it isn’t.”

“It’s an awfully good cake,” said Fiona, taking a second piece. “It rivals any of Mrs. Weatherspoon’s.”

“Yes, see, the texture is grainier and lighter than the last cake I made and the fruit is more evenly distributed,” said Marlin wonderingly as she picked her piece apart with her fork to study it.