me the time of day started listening to me. By senior year, I was one of the team captains, and being in charge, being respected, felt good. I’d never had that before.”
She listened to his quiet voice, and occasionally looked at him to see his expression unfocused, as if he saw the past.
“But then how did you go from that to the Marines? It’s a big jump.”
“I thought about college, and maybe I could have gotten a football scholarship to a small school—I wasn’t a Division I prospect. But I’d have had no money for books or travel or clothes, and frankly, going to school more just didn’t appeal to me. You neither?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “Nate went to college and learned everything about business and animal science. It seemed . . . repetitive to learn the same stuff.”
“That was the opinion of an eighteen-year-old girl. What do you think now?”
“I guess I still feel that way,” she said with a shrug. “His skills help him take care of his part of the ranch. My skills are out here, under the sky, with the animals. Do you wish you’d chosen differently?”
“No. Once Coach suggested the military—he was a vet himself—something seemed to click inside me. And Grandma Palmer was so proud I had a direction in my life at last.”
“You had more than a direction—you must have been driven. Your grandma told us you’d been promoted through the ranks to staff sergeant at a young age.”
He shrugged.
And then . . . nothing. It took everything in Brooke not to ask him specific questions when it was obvious he was keeping so much inside.
“So what you’re saying,” she said at last, “is that this Tyler kid needs some good people in his life. I kind of told that to Steph, suggested she invite him to join her teen group. I’ll let you know what happens.”
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