Page 88 of The Usual Family Mayhem

“What report?” Gram asked.

Celia started to get up. “Maybe we should give them some privacy.”

I wasn’t falling for that. “Oh, please. You don’t mean it.”

“It looks like Dad had a private investigator throw together a report on Kasey.” The words rushed out of Jackson as if he needed to make his argument before he lost the floor again. “She clearly read it and panicked without talking to me.”

“Harlan caused all of this?” Gram sounded less than impressed. “That man is a—”

“That’s not quite what happened.” I put an end to whatever she was going to say because it wasn’t going to be good, and Jackson still had to be related to the guy.

Jackson kept talking, refusing to get sucked into the hurricane of weirdness swirling around him. “You left the report open to the recommendations page. I know you read it.”

“Kasey.” Celia sighed. “We’ve talked about this. You need to leave a space exactly how you found it or people will know you were snooping.”

Yes, that was the important lesson here.

“I was skeptical before but it’s good advice,” Gram added.

Time to end this so I could eat the scone instead of just holding it. “I wasn’t... okay, everyone listen to me for a second. I wasn’t snooping. I knocked over the papers and then, yes, read them but only because I saw my picture on the first page.”

Gram made a noise that sounded likehuh. “How do you define ‘snooping’?”

A fair question. “I didn’t actively go looking for inflammatory documents. I wanted coffee, as we’ve already established.”

Celia looked ready to respond but Jackson beat her to it.“I don’t care that you read the report. I care that you think I asked Dad to hire a private investigator.”

Now I felt bad. Poor Jackson rushed over here thinking I suspected the worst. I’d pushed him over this edge.

The scone would have to wait. “Then we don’t have a problem. I don’t think you had anything to do with the report.”

“But you...” He stood there for a second without talking. “Okay, good.”

“You two should work on your communication.”

True but not helpful. “Gram.”

Another snort. “I’m not wrong.”

Jackson sat down next to me. I almost held his hand. Only the presence of our nosy and overly involved audience stopped me. “The report looked like a Harlan-created invasion of privacy. He ordered it, or whatever you do when you hire an investigator, to prove that I’m ruining your life and your political aspirations.”

Jackson frowned. “I don’t have political aspirations.”

“Ruining his life?” Gram sounded offended. “He’d be lucky to be with you.”

The tension eased from Jackson’s face and body. He almost smiled. “I agree.”

Did he just say... “Back up for a second.”

“If you know the report was my dad’s doing and nothing I care about, why run?”

Yeah, that. A new mess I created. “The second report.”

“Two reports?” Gram made a sound I couldn’t even identify. “Harlan has been a busy little toad.”

Jackson put his hand on my knee and pulled my attentionright back to him. “Are you serious? I only saw the one then bolted over here.”

“Your dad is very enterprising. A second report was on the stack he left for you. He had one done on Gram and Celia and the business.” I took the rolled-up summary I’d ripped out of the report and put in my robe pocket. “Here.”

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