Diane wiped her hands and smiled. “Well, I did help buy this house for them. Isn’t it only right I take a little more care?”
Said just loud enough for the table to hear. Not too loud. Just right.
I was holding a fresh stack of plates, and my feet felt nailed to the grass. One sentence, and I was back to being the daughter-in-law living off her charity. This yard, this house — all hers, on loan to me.
The relatives at the table started in. “You raised that boy all by yourself. That wasn’t easy.”
Diane put her hand on the fence. “They found the house, but they couldn’t make the down payment. I pulled out everything I had saved. I just wanted my son to have a home of his own.”
Someone chimed in: “Kids these days have no idea what their parents go through.”
I set the stack down. “We remember that money. And we agreed we’d pay it back.”
