Numbers on the fridge

Danny's quarter came in better than he thought. Not spectacular, but better, and the Caldwell retainer renewed, which is the part that actually matters because it is the only predictable money in the house apart from mine. He wrote the number on the fridge whiteboard with an exclamation mark, which is the single most Danny thing he has ever done. He is not a demonstrative man about money. He has a very flat affect about it in both directions, which I used to read as calm and now read as something closer to weather-hardened. Good quarter means we are fine until roughly February and then we will see. I notice I did not feel relief. There was a two-minute gap where I was waiting for the rest of the sentence, the bit where it turns out to be less than it looks, and then when the rest of the sentence did not come I felt something closer to bracing than to gladness. He saw my face and said what, and I said nothing, it's great, and it is great, and I did mean it by about the third time I said it.

Yes, now that you ask. I did it when the house inspection came back clean. I did it when Dale told me my retention numbers. I had not put those next to each other before. I think I assumed it was a money thing.