“Is there a version of this where you ask him anything, Frank?”

“Evelyn is fifty-eight years old,” he said.

“She doesn’t need this.”

Then, more quietly: “If the two of you decide to separate over your spending, the family stands with Julian.

I wanted you to hear it from me and not from her.”

The porch light came on by its own timer.

“Twelve plates,” I said.

“Friday at seven.