No overseas conference calls, no framing delays, and no heavy-handed meddling from your father.”

I kept my hands jammed deep in my coat pockets, tapping my thumb against my index finger three times.

“Dad was just trying to help when I called him from Germany,” I said.

“Your father means well, Val, but he turns every little household spat into a military operation,” Trevor said, stepping across the frosty patio boards toward me.

“He had two police cruisers idling in our driveway over a simple parenting mix-up.”

“Sadie was outside shivering in twenty-two-degree weather,” I said.