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.”
She squeezed his cheek as if he were four. “I know you do. Now let’s go inside. You’ll enjoy meetin’ Whitney.”
Oh, would he? he thought suspiciously. She leaned on his arm and her cane as she walked up the stairs, one at a time, then rapped smartly on the door.
The woman who answered gave Grandma Palmer a friendly smile, then glanced with barely masked surprise at Adam.
“Hello, Mrs. Palmer, it’s so wonderful to finally meet you in person.”
Whitney Winslow was stylishly dressed in slim black pants and a white-and-black-patterned silky-looking top. Adam suspected her clothes wouldn’t look out of place in Aspen. Her black hair hung in various lengths to her shoulders, framing intelligent, gray eyes. If someone could radiate determination, it was Whitney, with her slim back as straight as a Southern finishing-school graduate.
Grandma Palmer beamed and took the other woman’s hand. “Such a pleasure, Whitney, such a pleasure. Allow me to introduce my grandson, Adam Desantis.”
Adam shook her hand gently because his own palm was full of calluses, and hers felt like she’d never done anything more physical than typing at a computer.
Whitney’s smile was nothing more than polite, and he found himself relaxing. At least she didn’t seem to know that his grandma might have several motives for their evening.
Whitney spread her arms wide as if displaying the place. “Mr. Deering, the real-estate agent, left me the keys to give us some privacy.”
“That Howie Junior, so thoughtful.”
Adam remembered Howie—or “Deer” as they’d called him on the football team, for his fast speed at running back. If memory served him, he’d even dated Brooke in high school, but Adam seemed to remember hearing it hadn’t gone too well. Though Deer had been fast on his feet, he was clumsy as an ox with girls.
“So what do you think?” Whitney asked, turning around slowly.
Adam saw a large bare room with a fireplace on one side, and huge, plate-glass windows facing the front porch. An intricately carved banister followed stairs up to the next floor. There were two doors at the rear.
“I plan to take out the wall into the dining room for one big showroom,” Whitney explained. “The fireplace will make it seem so intimate.”
So will the lingerie, Adam almost said. But it was none of his business. He strolled around to peer into the kitchen and dining room while the two women went on and on about the lingerie catalogue online, until his ears were burning at hearing words like bustier and teddy come from his grandma’s lips. He wondered if Brooke had seen his grandma order something online but spared