“I didn’t realize how bad it was.”
Vanessa gave him a tired look.
“I told you.”
He nodded.
“You’re right.”
That surprised both of us.
Then he took a breath.
“I heard you. I just kept thinking if it got really bad, you’d tell me exactly what you needed.”
“I shouldn’t have to make you a list of everything in your own house,” she said.
“No.”
He looked embarrassed.
“No, you shouldn’t.”
I picked up his basket and pushed it toward him.
“Good. Start with that.”
He looked down at it.
Vanessa almost smiled.
I pushed her basket toward her.
“You take yours.”
Then I pointed to the children’s basket.
“You two split that.”
Finally, I touched the fourth basket.
“And you figure out together how you’re going to help your father.”
Vanessa nodded.
“What about you?”
“Me?”
She glanced toward the washer.
“Aren’t you going to help?”
There was enough hesitation in her voice that I knew she understood the question differently now.
I smiled.
“Not tonight.”
For the rest of the evening, Josh and Vanessa did laundry.
Both of them.
He loaded the washer while she sorted clothes. She moved one load to the dryer while he folded another at the table upstairs.
