« Fine. We’ll see. »
Daniel didn’t say a word. He stirred his coffee and studied the rim of the mug.
Rose stood up, slung her purse back over her shoulder, and gave me a little smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
She looked at Daniel for the briefest second.
Then she turned back to me.
« Fine. We’ll see. »
« Have you seen the lake house keys? »
The door clicked shut behind her. I stood there for a moment with a strawberry stem in my hand, feeling the strange chill of a sentence that shouldn’t have sounded like a threat but did.
I walked to the small shelf by the front door and placed the keys to the lake house on the wood, right next to the little clay bowl my daughter had made.
****
A few days later, I reached for the keys on the shelf by the door and found nothing but a ring of dust where they’d been.
