Our Now and Forever(75)

“Of course I have.” Her words were clipped with offense, as if he’d insulted her intelligence.

Caleb raised his brows in answer and waited for the revelation to sink in. Once understanding lit her face, he said, “I didn’t mean to mislead you. Guess I wanted to make my way without throwing around my family’s name.”

The older woman gaped at him long enough for Caleb to grow uncomfortable. And then she laughed. Full-out, bent-over laughter. What was so funny, he didn’t know.

“Are you okay?” he asked, when the laughing faded into wheezing. Hattie waved her hands in some communication Caleb didn’t understand. Was she begging for help? Did she need a doctor? He prayed she wouldn’t need mouth-to-mouth.

“This is hysterical,” she said as she straightened. “I offered a McGraw a job at a newspaper.” Removing the sunglasses to wipe tears from her eyes, Hattie added, “We must be the dinkiest operation you’ve ever seen.”

“The Advocate is small.” Caleb couldn’t argue that. “But I wouldn’t call it dinky. You run a solid operation with a lot of history. That paper offers an irreplaceable service to this town. Not all papers can say that.”

Her laughter diminished to a chuckle as she propped the sunglasses on the bill of her cap. “Are you defending my own paper to me?” she asked. Then before he could answer, she said, “You really like it over there, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He liked his job, but he liked being part of the community more. And Caleb really liked that whatever respect he’d earned had been on his terms, and a result of his hard work. Not because of who he was, who his father was, or how much his family was worth.

A broad smile stretched the wrinkles along Hattie’s pale skin. “I’m glad to know my instincts are still as sharp as ever.” She drew the screen door wide and shoved the interior door open. “I had a feeling about you from the moment I caught you nosing around my garage. Though I guess my money sniffer is on the fritz. I didn’t see that coming at all.”

Caleb followed her inside. “To be fair, my dad has all the money. I mean,” he corrected, “I have some of my own, but he runs the company. He’s the man behind McGraw Media, not me.”

“If what Wally tells me is true,” Hattie said as she set her two bags at the bottom of the stairs, “you could take over the family business tomorrow and not miss a beat.”

He appreciated the compliment, but Caleb had no desire to be handed a conglomerate anytime soon. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather keep doing what I’m doing.”

“And we’d like you to keep doing it, too. I was worried there for a bit, as we got closer to Gerald’s retirement.” An unpleasant expression crossed her face. “Don’t know what that man is thinking. He’s going to be bored out of his mind inside of a week.”

Caleb added his bags to the ones Hattie had set on the floor. “I don’t know about that. His wife has already booked them on a Caribbean cruise for January, and then she’s dragging him to Europe for two weeks at the end of March.”

“Dolly has been wanting to travel for as long as I can remember. Back in high school she was always talking about the places she’d go after graduation.”

“You went to school with Mrs. Nichols?”

“Yep.” Hattie plopped down on a step and rummaged through one of the bags. “We’re all Ardent Springs class of ’49.” Looking up, she added, “We were a mighty foursome.”

Gerald had mentioned that he and Dolly were high school sweethearts, but the two of them plus Hattie equaled three. “Did you say foursome?” he asked.

Hattie grew serious, a rush of loss filling her eyes. “Jack was my beau,” she said. “We lost him in Korea.”

With those simple words, the pieces fell into place. Miss Hattie had never been a Mrs. because she never got the chance.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Caleb said, out of his depth on how to console the elderly woman.

She took in a deep breath and let it out, shaking her arms as she did so. “Ancient history. So you want to pay off the ring?”

“Yes.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and handed over the check he’d written earlier in the week. “I had the ring appraised to make sure I paid you what it’s worth.”

Lifting the reading glasses from their ever-present chain, Hattie squinted at the slip of paper. “But this is two thousand over my asking price.”

“Like I said, I want to pay you what it’s worth.” In truth, the ring had appraised at only five hundred over the original price, but the sentimental connection was worth more than that. She looked ready to argue, so Caleb cut her off. “I need to head out,” he said. “Spencer is going to think I got lost.”