When he takes a step closer, I don’t move away.

“The concert is general admission, but I got us tickets to the early entrance. They check IDs and wristband kids who are underage. It’ll be over by eleven because it’s an all-ages show, and I promise to have him and his buddy back home by midnight. Is there anything else you need to know?”

“Why are you taking him?”

“Because I dig the kid,” Christian says, “and I like the band. It’s a thank-you to him for all his help.”

I look around. “It doesn’t look like you’ve done anything except get rid of my family heirlooms.”

“He’s still been a help, and I’ve got plenty more for him to do for me. Look, if you really don’t want me to take him to the show, I’ll tell him something came up and I can’t make it. You can make me the bad guy.”

Eli would be so disappointed. It would prove what I told him about Christian being unreliable, but it also wouldn’t be the truth. I sigh, aggravated.

“No. He can go.”

Christian smiles. When he puts his hands on his hips, he reminds me too much of Ken. I can’t unsee it, or how much Eli resembles him, because of how much the two men look alike. Our child would be almost a quarter of a century old by now. Is that why he’s so fixated on mine?

“What was Ken doing over here the other night?”

“Came over to ask me to turn the music down,” Christian lies smoothly. His eyes widen a bit in fake innocence. “You should’ve come over, too. Beth was here. You’d have had fun.”

Turning on my heel, I leave before he can further work his wiles. I’m breathing hard as I cross the backyard. My boots squelch in a soft, wet spot in the grass. We haven’t had rain in weeks.

Shit.

In the living room, I light a fire in the gas fireplace and cozy myself up on the couch under a blanket. The days have been unseasonably warm, but the nights are getting cold. I fire up my sluggish laptop and do some research. The charge just to have someone come out and scope, or whatever they call it, our pipes, is three hundred dollars. If they need to rotor out anything blocking them, a portion of the fee gets refunded, but the cost of the other procedure is unlisted. That means it could be a lot.

Ken’s supposed to get paid every four weeks, but after the last mix-up, I’m not sure when the money will come in next. What will happen if it’s late again? Or worse, doesn’t come in at all? The bank account balance is just large enough to cover a couple of mortgage payments and some utility bills. The monthly fee for my storage unit goes onto my secret credit card, which always carries a balance. I try not to look at it very often, as though not seeing the monthly interest charges racking up will make them go away. I make the payments on it, but every month the charges keep coming back in.