“How was the fancy house?” she asked.

“Too many cushions.”

“Did the man like you?”

Joseph sat beside her.

“I don’t think so.”

She considered that answer.

“That’s okay. Mrs. Bennett likes us.”

He smiled. “She does.”

What Joseph didn’t know was that Richard had spent the rest of the evening calling his business attorney, the company’s project manager, and finally his son.

The first two calls were about signatures.

The last was about a video.

Chapter Five: Labor Day

Marla Bennett believed a block party was one of the last surviving forms of American diplomacy.

In her experience, people who had spent months glaring over hedges could be persuaded to exchange a polite greeting if someone put a bowl of pasta salad between them. So every Labor Day she strung bunting between the trees, persuaded the neighbors to share grills, and insisted that whoever complained about the music take a turn choosing it.

This year the atmosphere felt strained before the first burger was cooked.

The HOA land-transfer vote was due the following Thursday. People kept breaking into small groups to discuss the same question: why would an access road require changing the stormwater channel?

Richard arrived late with a cooler full of expensive drinks and a smile sharpened for public use.

“Let’s not spend a holiday on politics,” he announced.

Sandra, carrying a tray of peach cobbler, said, “It’s a drainage vote, Richard, not an election.”

Several neighbors laughed. Richard didn’t.

Joseph arrived with Khloe a little after two. He carried a plate of watermelon and a repaired speaker Marla had asked him to fix. He was wearing a gray T-shirt beneath an open flannel shirt because Khloe said he looked less like a school maintenance worker when he wore something that wasn’t covered in pockets.

“That’s a compliment, I think,” he told her.

“It is. Sort of.”

Khloe wore denim shorts and white sneakers she was determined not to get dirty. She spent the first hour with a group of younger children decorating paper pinwheels near the curb.

Joseph talked about nothing more controversial than whether the school district would replace the old boiler in the middle school before winter. He repaired a loose folding-chair hinge with a screwdriver he had somehow brought in his pocket. He ate half a burger and nearly fell asleep listening to a story about a neighbor’s fishing trip.