"No, sir. I'll leave the manual labor to you young folks."Rowen Dalgliesh wasn't old. In his mid-50s, the man had been hired on a three week contract ...o teach Arman and Felix the finer points of power boat handling. As they had informed Waylon, they were fine crewmen, but the powerful boats that Waylon had acquired for the island were beyond their skill level.After a week of phone calls around the islands and beyond, they got a cautious suggestion that they inquire after Mr. Dalgliesh. Retired. Reality was that he was stopping by to pay for snow removal and most likely throw a fuck into Helen. After 15 minutes the man came out followed by Helen, she waved to him as he left and Pete fumed. Letting Pete cool down Ron said, “I've been thinking about our talks and I'm going to do it Pete. I'm going to make a play for Helen so don't freak out on me. She can only stop me and I hope it doesn't mess all of us up”? Pete smiled, then laughed telling him to try hard because he needed the comfort. Stacy had called my cell phone earlier to say they had rented the room and given us the room number. Reah gave herself a nervous look in the vanity mirror above the passenger seat, touching up her make-up, and gave a long sigh. “Okay,” I said, “here we go.” We walked up and knocked on the door. Stacy answered the door and let us inside. I could feel the tension, everyone dressed, everyone nervous. There was some small talk while I opened a bottle of wine and we were all sitting on the edges of. "Would you like to stay?" I said it softly, so as not to scare her into fleeing.Paula looked at me like I just suggested she have herself skinned alive, and snorted.Even expecting her to make a move, I never expected it to be so blatantly self-centered. If I had to guess, I'd say she was desperate to have sex with either her father or brother(s), and used me to pretend. If so, then she is doing without instead of doing them.It got me thinking about family relationships and how toxic they can.