“I knew it,” he gloated. “What is it about this room that lures everybody back here?”
“Maybe they’re hoping for a little privacy,” Sharon Lynn teased, going over to give him a kiss on the cheek.
He seemed fascinated by the explanation. “You two indulging in a little girl talk? Mind if an old man sits in?” He glanced at Patsy. “I have a few questions about you and my grandson.”
“Sorry, sir. You’ll have to get those answers from Justin,” Patsy said, slipping past him with the finesse and speed of a very crafty running back.
“Dadgumit, he wouldn’t tell me a blasted thing, either,” he grumbled irritably.
“Bless his heart,” Patsy murmured.
“What was that?” Harlan Adams asked.
“She said he’s a wise man, Grandpa. What she had the good grace not to say was that you’re being a nosy old man.”
He scowled at her. “Like you haven’t been poking at her all morning long.”
Sharon Lynn shrugged. “I’m her friend. I’m entitled.”
His gaze narrowed. “Did she tell you anything?”
“No, I did not,” Patsy said, giving Sharon Lynn a warning look. “Some people just enjoy making assumptions.”
“How the devil is a man supposed to plan a wedding, if nobody will tell him anything.”
Patsy halted in her tracks. A wedding? Who the hell had said anything about a wedding? Sharon Lynn shot her a sympathetic albeit an I-told-you-so look.
“Maybe you should let the people involved make their own wedding plans, Grandpa, if there are any to be made.”
He stared hard at Patsy. “That what you want?”
“I think it would be best,” she agreed, then relented just a little at his look of disappointment. “I will tell you one thing, though. If and when Justin and I talk about getting married, you will be the first to know.”
He gave a little nod of satisfaction. “Good enough.” He bent down and kissed Sharon Lynn’s cheek, then Patsy’s. “I’d best be getting back to White Pines. Janet’s been moping around out there this morning because she doesn’t have a case to work on. I’ve got to come up with something to keep her occupied or she’ll be back here in town practicing law full-time before I can blink. That case of yours sparked her hunger to work again.”
Sharon Lynn winked at Patsy. “Maybe you should compromise, Grandpa. Let her take on a case now and then.”
“She is a very good lawyer,” Patsy offered. “It’s a shame not to take advantage of all that legal knowledge.”
“You two are just too danged liberated for your own good. Her place is home with me. It’s taken me too darn long to get her there as it is.”
“She’ll be happier if she’s feeling fulfilled professionally,” Sharon Lynn said.
“Which means she will be very, very grateful to you for suggesting that she go back to work part-time,” Patsy said slyly. She did not mention just what form that gratitude might take, even though she had some very recent experience with it.
He regarded Patsy with a twinkle in his eyes. “I do like the way you think, girl. I hope you and my grandson hurry up and get this show on the road.”
“Why don’t you forget about Justin and Patsy and pester Harlan Patrick,” Sharon Lynn suggested. “Now there is a man just ripe for matrimony.”
“Never you mind your brother. He’s right on track with Laurie Jensen, as far as I can tell.”
“And you would know, I’m sure,” Sharon Lynn teased.
He scowled at her. “I have to see to it that all my babies are settled, don’t I?”
“You think you do, anyway,” she agreed.
Harlan Adams’s expression sobered. “What about you, darlin’ girl? You doing okay?”
The smile on Sharon Lynn’s face faded faster than the sun dipping below the horizon. Patsy gave her hand a squeeze.
“She’s doing fine,” Patsy said, trying to bring a quick end to the subject. She was all too aware that Sharon Lynn’s tears were too close to the surface and that the slightest reminder of Kyle could bring them coursing down her cheeks again. She’d dashed into this back room a few times herself today, when a customer’s sincere expression of sympathy had gotten to be too much for her.
Thankfully, Harlan Adams glanced at Sharon Lynn and took Patsy’s hint. He rose to his feet, again kissed his granddaughter on the cheek, then pressed another kiss on Patsy’s cheek.
“I’ll be getting on home now. As for you two, you might want to come out of this broom closet every now and again. It looks to me like