I looked at all three of them and said, “So what’s everybody’s budget?”
The room went quiet immediately.
My oldest uncle gave this little laugh like I was joking. “Budget for what?”
“For your part of the trip,” I said. “Flights, rooms, excursions. Grandpa already paid the deposits, so I figured the rest was getting split four ways.”
Nobody answered.
One uncle suddenly got very interested in his phone. Another started talking about how hard things had been lately with interest rates and groceries. Same routine as always.
Grandpa just sat there staring at the paperwork.
Then my oldest uncle sighed dramatically. “Come on. Dad wants to do this for the family.”
I asked Grandpa directly if that was true.
He hesitated.
That was honestly the worst part.
Not because I thought he couldn’t afford the trip. He probably could. But because he looked embarrassed sitting there in his own kitchen while his grown sons waited for him to volunteer his retirement again.
Finally he shrugged and said quietly, “I just wanted everybody together one more time.”
One of my uncles immediately jumped on that. “See? That’s all this is.”
“No,” I said. “This is three men in their fifties planning a beach vacation they can’t pay for.”
That landed hard.
Especially because none of them denied it.
I pulled out the folder Grandpa mailed me while I was overseas. Every charge. Resort deposits. Upgraded rooms. Excursion reservations already billed to his card.
Even a fishing charter none of them had mentioned yet.
My youngest uncle actually got mad at Grandpa for “making it look bad on paper.”
That part almost made me laugh.
In the end the trip still happened.
Just smaller.
Funny how fast the oceanfront suites disappeared once everybody had to start using their own credit cards.