True Love at Silver Creek Ranch(52)
She didn’t feel hurt that Adam didn’t confide in her—they didn’t have that kind of relationship. But . . . she was worried about him.
Late that afternoon, Adam thought he was going to the Widows’ Boardinghouse to have dinner with his grandma. Instead, she met him at the door, leaning on her cane, her dress full of browns and yellows and oranges, because to her, it was still the Thanksgiving holiday.
On the porch, Adam did a double take. “Grandma?”
“Help me with my coat, dear boy,” she said, holding it up to him as he stepped inside the kitchen.
He took the coat. “I thought we were having dinner.”
“We are, but I’d like you to take me into town and make an evenin’ of it. Won’t that be nice?”
He helped her on with her bright red coat, and he tried not to smile as it clashed with her dress. “Um . . . okay. Do you have a place in mind? I didn’t dress real fancy,” he said, looking down at his jeans, t-shirt, and fleece beneath his winter coat.
“You’ve got cowboy boots on, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” he said, puzzled.
“That’s fancy enough for Valentine Valley. You bring that truck of yours around to the stairs, and I can step right in.”
He did, and before he could get around to the passenger side, she already had the door open, which sort of surprised him. It was pretty heavy. As he held her elbow, she settled inside, then beamed up at him from beneath her immaculately combed blond wig. She’d put on some makeup, which made her seem more like herself. He had a quick thought that she hadn’t lost any weight since he’d been home, considering how little he’d seen her eat. He’d have to pay more attention.
“Now get in, boy, we can’t dawdle!”
He chuckled, determined to enjoy whatever she had planned.
And that wasn’t dinner, at least not right away. After they crossed the bridge into town, with the sun behind the snow-tipped mountains and the last gray lighting the day, she kept telling him to turn left and right, until they’d zigzagged through practically every block.
“Grandma, surely we’ve seen every restaurant by now. Pick one.”
At last, when she’d directed him to turn onto Fourth, a block off Main Street, she said, “Stop here!”
He drove up to the curb and looked around. He didn’t see a restaurant, but across the street was a nightclub called Wild Thing, and La Belle Femme, with women’s clothes in the window. “Is this a good parking spot for a restaurant I don’t see?”
“No. But do you see this buildin’ here?”
He turned the other way and saw an old Victorian three-story home with a steeply sloped roof all around at the top, carved stone above each window, and especially large plate-glass windows on either side of the front door. A weathered FOR SALE sign had been driven into the snowbank near the road, as if the place had been for sale a long time.
“It used to be the funeral home until they found a buildin’ more suitable to their needs,” Grandma mused.
He wondered what that could be—and then he remembered the last time he’d been in a funeral home, six months ago. His chest felt heavy with sadness, but for the first time it didn’t seem so crippling, so permanent.
Suddenly, a light went on inside the building although they couldn’t see in through the frosted glass.
“Right on time,” Grandma said with satisfaction. “Let’s go in.”
He caught her arm. “So we’re not going to dinner?”
“Oh, of course we are! I love the True Grits Diner.”
“You mean that place Sylvester Galimi owns? Is he going to be happy to see you, after that newspaper article?”
“Of course he will. Sylvester values money above all else, and we’ll spend some there.”
Adam ducked down until he could see out her window. “Then who are we seeing here?”
“Why, the future proprietor of Leather and Lace, Miss Whitney Winslow. This is the buildin’ she wants to buy.”
“You have an appointment, and you didn’t bother to tell me.”
She looked at him over her glasses. “I thought you were accompanyin’ me tonight, Adam. You never told me you had to approve our schedule first.”
“I don’t like surprises, Grandma, but I’m happy to go wherever you’d like.”
“Not like surprises? Did your admirals tell you everythin’ that was happenin’ in your wars?”
“Admirals are in the Navy, Grandma.”
“You know what I mean. You’re used to surprises, Adam, and I’m a woman who likes to offer them.”
He sighed. “And I love you for it.”