Page 26 of Not a Word

He looked at her accusingly. “You’re the one who calls her a cold fish.”

Diana said, “That’s not— I don’t think I ever said that.”

“I hear you guys,” Gage said. “What you say about her.”

A denial seemed to be on Diana’s lips, but I gave her a quick shake of the head. The thing was, Gage wasn’t wrong. Mom had a way of getting under our skin.

“We all know what she’s like,” Gage said. “She’s this control freak, getting in everybody’s business. She turned Uncle Holden into a head case.”

“Gage,” I said.

He kept on going. “It’s pretty obvious that’s why Grandpa was fucking somebody else.”

The comment was so raw, so shocking coming from our son, that it stunned Diana and me into a brief silence. Like we’d been slapped. The kid was grieving, but he was pushing my limits.

Gage, sensing he’d not only crossed a line but leapt right past it, said, “I’m just saying, that’s all.”

“Enough,” I said, recovering my ability to speak, but with an edge in my voice.

“Sorry,” he grumbled.

“We’re all trying our best to deal with this,” I said.

“Where were you?” Diana asked him.

Gage rolled his head around in her direction. “Around.”

“Around where?”

“The mall. With Dan. He was looking for shoes. Got something to eat at Five Guys.”

“Where were you when I called?” she asked.

A shrug. “Heading home. Like I said. God, it’s like an interrogation room around here.”

Not something Gage would have any familiarity with, I thought. But he did watch plenty of cop shows.

Diana said, “I’m not interro— I was just asking, okay? And while we’re at it, what about last night?”

“Last night?” he said.

“Where were you?”

“I was out.”

“You were supposed to be home by midnight.”

“I texted that I’d be late. You said okay.”

Diana glared at me, as though it had been my decision to let him come home an hour later, even though we had discussed it. Well, as much as you can really discuss something when you were fast asleep seconds earlier. Gage had texted Diana, who woke up, saw the message, nudged me awake, and said, “What do we say?”

“It’s fine,” I’d said, just wanting to put my head back onto the pillow. So Diana had texted back to say it was okay, but now it was all on me.

And why were we fighting about this now, anyway?

“I just think there need to be some more rules around here,” Diana said. She was generally pretty cool under pressure, but suddenly she looked as though she’d hit the breaking point. “It’s all been too loosey-goosey. Everyone does whatever they want no matter how it affects others. Come and go as you please. Stay out all night. From now on—”

“I didn’t stay out all night. I came—”