“Thank you. I meant to thank you for that but there was so much going on that night. Anyhow, it doesn’t change what you did to Fiona. She cried all night.”

“She did, did she?” said Al, looking soberly off toward the woods. “Yeah, I guess I should come over and apologize. I really didn’t mean to mess that up for her that way. I fell asleep and just kind of forgot.”

“We heard. We heard all about it,” said Marlin meaningly. “But I wouldn’t come over if I were you. She’s still pretty sore. She said she never wanted to see you again.”

“She did, huh?” said Al.

“And Charlie doesn’t want to go to look for Billy Bear with you anymore either. Because she’s mad that you made Fiona cry.”

“Oh, jeez.”

“So, will you help me? My cookbook’s on the MacBook Air but I can’t lend it to you to read because I still need it to work on my second book and the others use it for the internet so I’ll have to stay with you while you read it. Besides, I want to point out parts that I think I need help reworking.”

“I have to read it with you staring over my shoulder? Great. Oh, all right. Bring it over. But not tonight.”

“Tomorrow night when I bring dinner?”

“Not at night. I want to read it when I’m fresh. Bring it in the morning. You’ve got no school now, right?”

“Right.”

“So bring it then,” he said, and closed the door.

Al was more help than Marlin expected. He taught her how to rewrite her sentences and structure the cookbook in a more reader-friendly way.

“You know, it’s not a bad cookbook,” he said. “It’s got, as you yourself pointed out at dinner that night, a clever title. But I know nothing about the cookbook market and publishing anything is a dicey business.”

“Apparently,” said Marlin dryly.

After that they worked on it every morning. Fiona had found a summer job babysitting a toddler in town so Marlin was watching over Charlie and Natasha all summer. Charlie and Natasha didn’t question why Marlin went over to the trailer every morning. They were busy with their own summer pursuits. Natasha was cataloguing birds and wildlife and Charlie had Ashley over almost every day. When Ashley’s mom dropped Ashley off the first morning, Marlin told Ashley’s mom that she was babysitting her sisters that summer and Ashley’s mom seemed to take it for granted that this was because the girls’ guardian worked. Marlin said that she could babysit Ashley too if Ashley’s mom could do the drop-off and pickup and Ashley’s mother seemed delighted. And once when Ashley’s mom couldn’t pick her up, Al even agreed to drive Ashley home, bringing his truck over and pretending to have gotten home from work early.

“Delighted for free babysitting, yeah,” said Fiona as the four sisters lounged around the table after dinner one night.