“I can’t have police cars in the driveway and law offices calling my house after hours.”

“Where am I supposed to take Emma in twenty-four days’ time?”

“That’s something you’ll have to work out before noon on the thirty-first,” he said.

“Could you at least give me until mid-September?” I asked.

“The paperwork’s already filed with the township,” Mr.

Gable said.

“My crew comes in September first to repaint the inside.”

He turned and walked back to his pickup without a backward glance.