Page 68 of Things Left Unsaid

It’s…odd.

Mrs. Abelman doesn’t do smiles.

She’s dour and quiet. Scuttles around like a mouse but has a bark as bad as her bite. I’m sure that’s how she survived here as long as she did with Pops hanging around.

Cole calls her Poltergeist Abelman for a reason.

“I’ll arrange the coop when I’m home,” I inform her.

“With the McAllister girl.”

Her tone’s not disapproving, but…

“Yes.”

Her lips purse. “Never thought she’d agree to live here.”

“I gave her the option of living at the Bar 9.”

Primly, she sips her coffee. “You were willing to move?”

“It was the least I could offer.”

She clucks her tongue. “We did raise you right. Faith in you restored.

“She probably jumped at the chance of not having to live with Juliette. That woman would turn a nun to Satanism.”

Callan snorts. “Just think, Colt, she’s going to be your grandmother-in-law.”

I toss my napkin at him, satisfied when it gets him right in the face.

“No fighting at the table,” Mrs. Abelman orders. “Where shall I put her? And your father’s things now that they’re out of his suite?” A menial task she’d insisted on taking because she’s a control freak about her domain. “What about your mother? Should she still stay in the guest quarters?”

The multitude of questions has me rubbing my chin.

The house is split up into wings. Head, guest, and sons, with staff accommodations off the kitchen. The head shares one wing with his wife, the guest beds number in the half-dozen, and the sons all share a wing because the Korhonens rarely breed girls.

The last one died in the forties—killed in a shell factory when ammo she was making for the troops exploded in her face.

“Send Pops’s shit to the house in Saskatoon?—”

“You’re kicking him outforreal?” Callan sputters, eyes wide with delight like the time I told him we were going to Disneyland when he was nine.

“Sure am,” I retort, unsettled when I take note of his relief at the news.

This time, Mrs. Abelman smiles fully.

It’s disturbing.

“I’ll get on that today. The sooner I don’t have to see his face again, the better.”

I warn, “He might bounce back in this direction. You know he won’t like us evicting him from the house.”

“Can we change the locks?” Callan queries. “I could buy those electronic ones. With a code.”

I think about how Zee sounded on the phone after he tried to hijack her at the airport…

“Good thinking. But don’t you have some exams to study for? Deal with them first.”

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