Page 148 of The Housekeeper

“Mommy and I are having a discussion,” Harrison said. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Are you fighting?” Daphne asked.

“You don’t like whenwefight,” Sam added.

“We’re not fighting,” Harrison and I replied together, our voices overlapping.

“So, it’s Wren who’s been texting?” I asked after several seconds had passed and the kids had returned to their own squabbles.

“Okay, yes. It was Wren,” Harrison replied between tightly clenched teeth. “She was excited because one of the writers I suggested we contact just emailed that he’d be happy to take part. It’s quite a coup, everyone is thrilled, and she wanted to let me know.”

I absorbed this latest tidbit with a nod of my head. “You said this is happening at the end of August?”

“The last week, yes.”

“And you’d be gone the whole week?”

“Obviously.”

“I assume Wren will be there as well?” I asked as calmly as I could.

A noticeable stiffening of his shoulders, a narrowing of his eyes. “Of course.”

I forced a smile as he turned onto Scarth Road. “A week in Prince Edward County actually sounds pretty nice,” I offered. “Maybe the kids and I could join you. We could rent a cottage for the week, make it a family vacation. We haven’t had one in a while. I could do some investigating, see what’s available…”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“I’ll be very busy.”

“I’m sure we’ll find lots to do.”

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to combine business and pleasure. Someone inevitably ends up feeling shortchanged.”

“I don’t see how we’d be in the way.”

“Okay,” he said testily. “Let me think about it.” He turned in to my father’s driveway and shut off the car’s engine. “Well, kids, here we are.”

“Yay!” they cried in unison.

“I get to push the elevator button first,” Sam said, already halfway out the door before Daphne could undo her seatbelt.

“We’ll discuss this later,” Harrison told me.

I took a deep breath.Can’t wait,I thought.