“I shouldn’t,” I said.

Trevor cracked it for me. “After what you been through today? I don’t know anyone who deserves it more.”

“It really wasn’t that bad,” I said. Trevor sat back down. He looked at me with a slight, expectant smile on his face and said nothing, which was uncharacteristic — Trevor tended to be a rejoinderer. I realized he was waiting for me to elaborate on the visit with Eleanor Mallon.

“It was like you said,” I told him. “She just wanted to help.”

Trevor’s smile widened. “How’d she like the house?”

“The house?” I repeated.

“After all our hard work gettin it in shape for her,” said Trevor.

“Oh!” I said. “I think she liked it. You know, she did the whole what a lovely home you have thing when she first came in.”

“Homey touches,” said Trevor, nodding. “That’s what makes the difference to these people. You know, I was thinking, after this whole dust-up with the realtor, you may wanna actually hold off a bit on selling the place.”

I took a swallow of beer, thinking about this. True enough, I’d been wondering how things were going to proceed between Jessica and me in terms of selling the house now that I’d slapped her. I knew that soon I was going to have to call and try to work things out. But it never occurred to me I could just take the place off the market.

“I think,” I said slowly, “Jessica would be professional about the whole thing. I mean I don’t think she’d —”

“No, I just mean,” said Trevor, “with Adult Protection breathing down your neck and everything. Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe the thing to do is just hang fire for the time being while you and Beaner get settled. Show ’em you got things under control.”

“I actually feel pretty good about the visit today,” I told him. “I don’t think they’re going to be breathing down our necks.”

“Well, that’s good!” Trevor swished his Captain Morgan around in his glass and took a quick hit. “What’d she say? She ask about Beaner getting sick?”

“She did, yeah. And you know, I was just honest with her. I told her I used my best judgment and Kelli seemed better the next day and she seemed to accept that.”

Trevor nodded. “She tell you who ratted you out?”

“No. I tried to draw her out about Jessica but she just gave me a blank look.”

“Those social worker types,” said Trevor sagely. “They’re good at that. What about when you left her in the car? She ask about that?”

I winced a little at the memory. “Yeah — basically, I put it on my mother. I told her Irene used to do it all the time and Kelli was always ok.” I remembered how lame I felt when I explained this to Eleanor Mallon, knowing, as I said it, what an inadequate excuse it was. What I hadn’t told her was how angry I had been, how I had left Kelli there as a punishment as much as a last resort. And leaving this part of the story out made me worry that maybe the person who’d reported me had left it in, which I knew would make me look even worse in Eleanor Mallon’s eyes. I was not just a careless sister. I was a sister who let her emotions get the better of her. To the extent of putting Kelli in danger. Furthermore, I wouldn’t even admit to it.