Page 105 of An Adventure For Aster

“Busy sitting in my hotel room and watching TV?” he asked. Raine had even seemed surprised his parents didn’t ask him to dinner. He wouldn’t be an ass if they needed help, but he wasn’t going to kill his timeline to leave because his father wasn’t considerate enough to think this out better.

“Sorry,” his father said. “I thought you might be connecting with old friends. We weren’t home last night.”

Because that was what his parents did. When their daughter was ready to move and son was home for a day or so, instead of making time to visit they went out to have a few beers with friends they saw all the time.

Now he understood why Daphne was more relieved than nervous about moving. Their parents were not around and weren’t acting like they cared much either.

“Go shut the water off in here and we’ll pull it out and then I’ll carry the other one in for you and all you’ll have to do is move it into place and figure out where to put this one.”

“Never mind,” his father said. “You have to get going. I can do it another day.”

“Suit yourself.”

He knew it was a one-man job that might take two hours. It’d take him less, but he had no clue what mess he’d run into once that leaky cabinet was removed. The floor could be stained and soaked. There was probably mold. The pipes could be rusted.

Any number of things his father would want him to fix since he was here and it was started.

Free labor for them.

Daphne had said his parents were cleaning things out and throwing stuff away, but he didn’t notice much difference from a year ago.

When he got back to the living room, he heard his sister telling his mother not to even think about it.

“I just have a few more things,” Daphne said. “I told Mom she could keep the stuff in the kitchen that I’ve purchased. I’ll get new once I see what I might need. Poppy said I should be able to just move in once the place is ready.”

“Must be nice to move into your own place like that. Especially on the water,” her mother said, laughing. “I’d live in a camper for that location. And all you’ve got to do is babysit some kids. Two of them.”

He turned and looked at his mother. “It’s more than babysitting,” he said.

His parents wouldn’t understand that because that was all they saw of their obligation to their kids.

“I’ll be doing activities with them and bringing them places,” Daphne said. “I’ll interact.”

His mother waved her hand. “It’s not much more than you’re doing now but with fewer kids. Guess you landed in it on your visit to see Aster.”

It was the petty tone of his mother’s. She was still pissed off that Daphne went to see him and they didn’t know. They hadn’t found out until after his sister told them she’d gotten a new job and where.

“Is there a problem?” he asked. “You’re moving. The house is going up for sale in a week or so, you said. I thought you would have put it up by now.”

“We still have things to do,” his father said. If his parents were so concerned about it all, they would have done it by now. Like prioritizing it for a few months rather than hanging out with their friends.

“Now you’ll be able to do them,” he said. “Daphne’s room will be empty except for her bed and you can put that in a spare room if you have one.”

“I might just throw it out,” his father said. “It’s almost as old as your sister. The mattress too.”

He rolled his eyes. He knew that. His bed was the same.

“There you go,” he said. “You’ll need a dumpster here anyway by the looks of it.”

His mother frowned. “Why is that?”

“You said you’re downsizing,” he said. No reason to say the place was full of shit that they never threw out. He was lucky he could even get to his bed in his old room last year when he was here, as they were using that as storage.

“True,” his mother said. “We found a place and might not be able to get in there if we can’t sell this. But they’ve got a few for sale in the area. If we had some money now we could put a down payment on it to secure it.”

So that was what this was all about.

“Daphne has been paying half your mortgage for years. Maybe you should have put that aside for your down payment. You know you’ll need closing costs too.”

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