“What about your child support?”

“I’m not taking care of my daughters! They’re with their mother. They won’t come to my house because they’re not willing to be friendly with you. They’re not happy about us.”

“You should demand that they meet me and that they treat me with respect,” she said.

“I’m not going to demand anything of them,” he shot back.

“You said we’re in this together,” she yelled. “How can I let you and your lies drive me so crazy?” She ran to their bedroom.

Scott could hear Cat crying. He took a deep breath and followed her. He lay down beside her. He put an arm around her. “We are in this together,” he said.

She sniffed back her tears. “You hurt me, you know.”

“Look, we talked about this. We knew there would be adjustments. A transition. I’m hoping the girls will come around in time, but I can’t force it.”

“It’s like you’re ashamed of me or something,” she said.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I introduced you to my wife!”

“And was that her boyfriend with her?”

“I don’t know him,” Scott said. “She said it was someone she worked with. It’s irrelevant. We’re divorced. We can be with anyone we want. But the girls are young, idealistic, haven’t experienced a situation like this before, and we are going to give them time. If you push it, it’ll take longer.”

“I don’t think you really care,” she said. “I’m starting to wonder if you really love me as much as you said.”

He kissed her and asked, “Need some reassurance?”

“That might put me in a better mood,” she said, smiling.

Scott obliged, making love to her. Then they went back to the kitchen and worked together on making a lovely dinner. He opened a bottle of pinot noir, and they sat out on their deck to watch the sun go down.

They talked about how he could make things better, and he bought her a new car to prove his commitment.

There had been a couple more big blowups since then.

While Scott went to see Justine and the girls about selling the house, Cat had been off with a couple of girlfriends for three days in Vegas that he’d paid for. He hadn’t talked to her much, a minute here, a minute there. She just asked him, “Have you talked to her yet?”

He was saving the good news for when she got home.

He had already signed the paperwork to take over the title on the store and assume the loan payments. When they closed, he’d be giving up most of the settlement from his marriage. He thought he might even have to take another job to make ends meet, unless the house sold fast and for a good price.

Despite the fact that Cat was expensive, very high-maintenance and at times very difficult, he did not question his love for her. Their love for each other. He told himself that the best love did not always come easy. He would never be bored, and for that he was grateful. He missed her. He couldn’t wait for her to get home so he could tell her he was putting the house on the market.

That would make her so happy.

* * *

Justine asked Adele to go with her and the girls to their San Jose house to take inventory of the furnishings. Of course the girls could take all their possessions immediately—Scott would have no claim to those things. The girls also had a chance to look through some of their family possessions and choose some personal items they wanted—pictures, accessories, family heirlooms.

And Addie was expected to have a say as she helped Justine choose furniture, kitchenware, linens and miscellaneous items that would be moved into the house in Half Moon Bay. They would mark and list the items Justine wanted but leave all the furniture, paintings and decorator items where they were so the house looked well staged for showings.

“I feel terrible about this,” Addie said when they entered the house.

“Well, it was going to happen at some point. Scott is right—an empty house isn’t doing anything for anyone. The girls have decided they’d rather be with us in Half Moon Bay than here, usually alone.”

“What I feel terrible about is that this is a beautiful, tasteful home, so carefully decorated, the furniture so thoughtfully selected, and my house, our house, is old and falling apart.”

“Well, maybe we can do something about that,” Justine said. “We can make some improvements. Not a huge remodel. It’s a fine old house, after all. But it needs some repair and I have some savings. Plus this house will sell and I’ll make the mortgage payments until it does, deducting Scott’s share from the equity. He hasn’t made his payment in almost six months.”

“I feel bad putting your beautiful furnishings in our old house with the uneven floors and peeling paint.”

Justine smiled at her and pinched her chin. “We’ll fix that.”

Amber held up a multicolored glass vase and matching plate. “Mom, I found these for you at the market. Can we take them?”

“I think so,” she said. “Write them down. We can take your bedroom furniture and the kitchenware now, but everything else should stay until the house sells. But we need to get rid of some things. There’s stuff here we never use.”

“What about all the stuff in the garage?” Addie asked.

“Hello?” came the sound of Scott’s voice.

“In here,” Justine called. “We were just talking about you. What are we doing with all the sports gear in the garage?”

“I hooked up the trailer. I’ll take that stuff out to clean up and will sell anything we don’t keep. I assume you want your bikes.”

“Yes, I think so, but not all that dune racing or water sport stuff. I assumed you would take all that.”

“Yes, I’ll take it. And you can have the books. But I want the couch.”

“What? You hated the couch. You complained about that couch for years.”

“You did, Dad,” Amber said.

“I like it now,” he said.

“No, he doesn’t like it,” Livvie said. “Someone else likes it. Right?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said.

“Red flag,” Justine said. “Whenever he says don’t be ridiculous, it’s because he just got caught in a lie. Has she been here, Scott?”

“Don’t be—” He cleared his throat. “I really like the living room furniture. You can take the master bedroom, dining room, kitchen furniture and the bar stools.”

“She wants the living room, doesn’t she?” Justine asked.

“I want the living room furniture, Justine.”

“Wait a minute,” she said. “This has to be equitable. The sports toys are worth thousands. And you have no use for books. How about I take the toys and you take the books.”

“This is going to be a very long day,” Addie said.

There was a little more arguing and give-and-take until Justine told the girls to go pack up their rooms since there was no dispute there. Addie went to help them. Justine and Scott sat at the breakfast bar and worked things out on paper. Fortunately, there was not a lot of extra room in Addie’s old house so, from a practical point of view, Justine was able to let a lot of things go. She tagged a few books she wanted to keep and claimed the dining room table and chairs but not the breakfront. She didn’t want or need the master bedroom furniture. “I have a feeling there could be unknown DNA on that,” she muttered.

Scott admitted he was planning to sell all the toys from the garage, minus the girls’ bikes.

“We can have an estate sale after the house has sold,” Justine said. “But I am taking the living room furniture and the decorator pieces that I chose and bought. Buy your girlfriend a new living room set.”

“It’s not for my girlfriend,” he insisted. But he blushed slightly and didn’t argue.

Later, Addie helped Justine box up some dishes, pots and serving platters from the kitchen. Scott did the same with glasses, a few countertop appliances and some flatware. He had his trailer, but Justine had a truck coming at two to transport the girls’ bedroom furniture and her boxes to Half Moon Bay. The main rooms of the house remained furnished, that furniture tagged either red for Justine or blue for Scott. The house looked almost model perfect. After the cleaning ladies made a run-through, it would be show-ready.

“How are you holding up?” Addie asked her sister.

“It’s very strange,” she said. “This doesn’t feel like home to me anymore. I don’t know that man anymore. The Scott I loved and trusted is gone. If his lips are moving, he’s lying. I don’t actually want that living room furniture, so I’ll sell it and we’ll get something new for the living room, but it was so obvious that his girlfriend wants it, I wasn’t going to allow that to happen. But I’m anxious for a clean slate. A new beginning.”

Addie put an arm around Livvie when she came to join them. “You doing okay?” she asked her niece.

Livvie nodded. “This place just makes me want to cry,” she said. “The last few months with Daddy hardly here for us were just terrible. I felt like an orphan. I don’t want to live here anymore.”

I hate him for what he did to my nieces, Addie thought. What a selfish, cruel bastard.

The men on the rented truck quickly loaded, drove and unloaded in Half Moon Bay. They set up the beds for the girls and left everyone to unpack. As there was no room in Addie’s kitchen for boxes full of dishes and platters, those boxes went to the enclosed back porch until they could make some choices, keeping the best and discarding the worst. There were boxes everywhere—against a living room wall, at the top of the stairs, in the kitchen and bedrooms. There was a freestanding garage, but it was already full of stuff that had belonged to their parents. Another project for another weekend. “I promise to help with the kitchen after I get the bedroom settled,” Justine said.

Addie looked around at the crunch of boxes and furniture and felt claustrophobic. Sleepovers were one thing. Even spending almost the whole summer together it had never felt too crowded. But this—giving her house over to three more people and their possessions... She suddenly felt as if she was disappearing.