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  “He’s mad about me telling him a truth he didn’t like hearing. He also wants to be placed on the agenda for the town meeting.”

  Bernadine admitted to being curious but didn’t ask for details. Henry Adams had no secrets. “Putting him on is up to you,” she said, and introduced Tina.

  Trent said, “Good to finally meet you. And thanks again for the wedding gift.” She’d given Trent and Lily full run of her oceanside estate in Miami for their honeymoon a few years back.

  “You’re welcome. You and Lily’re still young and in love, I hear.”

  “Always and forever,” he stated with quiet pride.

  “I love that. Why can’t I ever find a man like you?” Answering herself, she said, “Probably because I’m always looking for love in all the wrong places. Boardrooms. Palaces. Castles.”

  Bernadine smiled. Tina had three ex-husbands and enough discarded lovers to fill a phone book but had never found happiness. “Keep looking.”

  “No. I’m done searching. Going to put down roots in Henry Adams, sit on my porch, coffee in hand, and watch the wheat grow.”

  Bernadine didn’t believe that for a minute. In spite of Tina’s numerous failed attempts at love, she was a romantic at heart.

  Trent asked, “Did you bring the blueprints for your bed-and-breakfast?”

  “They’re in my luggage, which was dropped off at Bernadine’s place. Maybe we can look at them this evening?” She turned to Bernadine.

  “Sure.” Turning to Trent, Bernadine added, “If you and Lily want to stop by after dinner, we can see them then.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Almost forgot,” he added. “Mal applied for the custodian job at the school. I’m waiting for a yea or nay from Marie.”

  Bernadine found that confusing. “He going to work both here and in Oklahoma?”

  Trent told her about the layoff.

  “Oh, I see,” she replied. “I’m sure Marie won’t have a problem with him getting the job. Neither do I. If he’s not working, he can’t pay us back.”

  “Exactly. So now both custodial jobs at the school are filled.” With the community college sharing the building, two full-time custodians were needed.

  Bernadine asked, “Where’s the lady custodian you hired from again?” She hadn’t sat in on the interviews. She was stepping back from being in on every little thing. The town leaders were excellent at their jobs and at turning the world with their own hands.

  “From Memphis. Name’s Lisa Stockton. I asked her to come to the next town meeting. She grew up in Hays. Came with good references from the Memphis school system, and I had the sheriff’s office run a background check. Don’t ever want us to be caught flat-footed the way we were with Crystal’s bio dad.”

  Bernadine agreed. Crys’s bio father, Ray Chambers, came into town posing as a drifter named Otis Miller. He kidnapped Crystal, held her for ransom. He ended up killed in a tornado instead of being paid.

  Trent’s voice cut into her thoughts. “If Ms. Stockton works out, we may consider letting her rent Rock’s old trailer on Tamar’s land. Right now, she’s rooming at the motel on Highway 183.”

  “Okay. Looking forward to meeting her.”

  Tina said, “I’d like to attend the town meeting, too. Is it in the next few days?”

  “Yes. Thursday evening. We can introduce you and let everyone know about your bed-and-breakfast.”

  Tina asked with concern, “Trent, are we really going to be able to build it before the snow comes?”

  “As I said before. Depends on weather, planning, hiring workers, et cetera, but we’ll look at the plans tonight and see.”

  “Okay.”

  “In the meantime, I’ll head back to my office. Lily’s at the Dog talking to Siz about the menu for the reunion.”

  “I got her text on my way to meet Tina’s plane. Are you excited about the reunion?”

  “I am. Looking forward to seeing the old friends I’ve lost touch with. Especially the guys on the basketball team.”

  “You were the captain, right?” Bernadine asked.

  He nodded. “Captain of basketball team, baseball team, football team, and the track team.”

  Awestruck, Tina asked, “When did you have time for your studies?”

  “When I wasn’t working.”

  “Goodness.”

  “See you ladies later.”

  When he left, Tina quoted the old TLC/En Vogue lyric, “I think I want to have his babies.”

  Bernadine giggled. “You are so silly. Don’t let Lily hear that.”

  “I won’t, but Lord, he’s as good-looking as his father.”

  “And loves the ground Lily walks on. He’s an incredible husband and dad to their boys.” Mal, on the other hand, had reverted to his snake-oil salesman ways. The pain continued to weigh her down.

  “I’m sorry,” Tina said softly. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

  “I’m okay.”

  “No, you aren’t, but we’ll pretend until you are.”

  Bernadine savored the sight of her friend’s familiar face. “Have I told you how much I love having you as a sister of my heart?”

  “Not today, no.”

  Tina always had the ability to see through whatever smoke screen Bernadine threw up to mask her true feelings.

  “I love you, Tina Craig.”

  “And I love you too, Ms. Bernadine—Mal can kick rocks—Brown.”

  “How about we go get something to eat?”

  “I’m all yours.”

  When they returned from dinner, Lily and Trent joined them to view the artist’s rendering and blueprint for the B&B. “Tina, this is lovely,” Bernadine gushed, taking in the sitting porches, the turrets, gables, and gingerbread trim.

  “It’s called a painted lady. There are some in the Bay Area near Oakland and some back east. I love the style. And they’re all painted striking colors. I want this to be purple and indigo.”

  Lily said, “Looks like a house that could have easily been here in the nineteenth century.”

  Trent nodded. “How many bedrooms?”

  “Five is the plan for now.”

  He scanned the rolled-out blueprint. “Lot of architectural detailing.”

  “I know. I want the exterior to be as memorable as the interior. It’ll look great on a travel site.”

  Bernadine agreed. “I can see the rockers on the porches.”

  “And lots and lots of roses,” Lily added.

  Tina said, “Roses and hydrangeas, and mass plantings of giant zinnias. Inside, I want old-fashioned four-posters, flat screens, en suite bathrooms, gas fireplaces. I’d originally wanted real ones, but Sara, my architect, talked me out of it. Too much work. Flues, ashes, all that.”

  Trent said, “She’s right.” He continued his scan. “May take time to find the carpenters able to handle the outside trim work. This isn’t a standard, suburban cookie-cutter job.”

  “I was worried about that, but if we have to wait for the spring to open, I’ll be okay with it. I want it done right.”

  Bernadine agreed.

  They spent the next hour putting together a task list and a tentative schedule. Trent asked questions about Tina’s choices for flooring, paint colors, the number of electrical outlets per room.

  At one point Tina asked, “Can we put heated flooring in the bathrooms?”

  He looked up. “Sure, if your budget can handle it.”

  “It can.”

  “Adding it, then.”

  When they were done, Tina seemed pleased. She was the leading financial adviser for the Bottom Women’s group and Bernadine knew there was no one savvier when it came to investments. If Tina felt a B&B would thrive in Henry Adams, Bernadine saw no reason to doubt it.

  Chapter 5

  Thursday evening, everyone filed into the Dog for the monthly town meeting. Amari, Brain, and the Clark sisters loaded up their plates at the buffet and settled into one of the red leather booths by the back wall. Amari enjoyed the meetings. Th
ey reminded him of a family reunion. He also liked that he and the other kids were allowed to give their opinion on whatever was being discussed. As people milled around getting food and using the gathering as a chance to catch up with others they hadn’t seen for a while, he was pleased to see Rocky back from her honeymoon. Wearing her apron and a smile, she moved through the crowded diner like the boss that she was, while her new husband, Mr. James, sat talking with the new teacher, Mr. Abbott.

  Preston leaned over. “Glad Mr. James is back. I like Mr. Abbott and all, but I missed him.”

  Amari agreed. Mr. James was family. He’d instilled in Amari a passion for learning, something he never envisioned for himself back when he was in Detroit stealing cars, and he’d always be grateful.

  “Tamar’s here,” Tiffany said.

  Amari loved every inch of his six-foot-tall great-grandmother, from the long silver hair to the wealth of white-gold bangles on her wrists. Dressed in a flowing blue-and-black caftan, she had the air of a queen. She was known for her wit and devotion to the town, and for driving like an Indy qualifier in her old truck named Olivia. Since getting a bunch of speeding tickets from the new county deputy Davida Ransom last fall, she’d slowed her roll, but nothing would keep her from being Henry Adams’s Matriarch in Charge. She stopped at the front table to speak with Amari’s parents and Ms. Bernadine. From the ice in her eyes and tight set of her jaw, Amari got the feeling that something or someone had set her off. He reviewed his own actions of the past few days, couldn’t come up with anything that might have placed him on the hot seat, and relaxed.

  Leah said, “I wonder who Tamar’s mad at?”

  “Me, too,” Preston echoed as the conversation up front continued.

  Tiffany dipped a fry in the ketchup on her plate. “After the smackdown she gave me when we first moved here, I’m never making her mad. Ever.”

  Truthfully, Tiff had earned that smackdown; she’d been a mouthy, unlikable mess, but Amari kept that to himself. Since none of his friends were the cause of whatever set Tamar off, he relaxed. Moving his attention across the room, he spotted Mr. Clark in the buffet line.

  “Has that crazy lady with the Chihuahua been banned from the store?” he asked Leah. Amari and Preston worked there on weekends, so they knew about Monday’s incident, as did everyone else in town.

  “No. Just the dog,” she replied. “Dad says she’s eccentric, but harmless.”

  Preston sipped his water and said, “Eccentric. A polite word for crazy.”

  Wyatt and Zoey came into the diner with Devon, Lucas, Jaz, and Alfonso and Maria Acosta. Whose dad was the town’s fire chief. They took seats at a couple of booths nearby. Now that the number of kids had increased, one booth was no longer large enough to hold them all. Amari thought that a good thing, because if Devon started the whole make-OG-paint-the-fence thing, he didn’t want to be collateral damage when his brother was torched by the glares from some of the adults in the room, even if others, like their dad, agreed with the idea.

  The room suddenly went quiet. Searching for the reason, he looked to the entrance and saw his grandfather. Every eye in the place was on Mal, and the way his lips tightened in response made Amari hurt inside. Amari’s eyes strayed to Devon. The smug smile and the gleam in his eye indicated Devon planned to show out, and Amari wanted to reach across the room and smack him upside his round head. For a kid who once wanted to be a preacher, his little brother had a side that was all about the devil.

  Preston whispered, “Look at Tamar’s face.”

  Amari saw anger, fury, and hurt. She seemed as disappointed with her son as they all were. It made him wonder if Mal’s showing up at the meeting had been the subject of her earlier conversation with his parents and Ms. Bernadine.

  As the OG made his way through the room and took up a position by the kitchen doors, Amari saw sympathy from people like Mr. Bing, and winter in the face of Ms. Bernadine. Finally, the sound of the mayor’s gavel opening the meeting drew everyone’s attention to the front of the room.

  Things began as always with his dad thanking everyone for coming, before moving on to business.

  “The town-wide security system is up and functioning. The colonel has the details.”

  Brain’s adopted dad, retired Marine colonel Barrett Payne, the head of town security, was a tall, buff, no-nonsense badass, and although he and Brain had had trouble being father and son at first, they now had each other’s back. “As Trent said, the new system is fully functional and proved its worth by helping us prevent what could have been a tragedy at Gemma’s place a few weeks ago.”

  Amari remembered all the drama of that night when a crazy social worker tried to set fire to Ms. Gemma’s house. He looked over at her seated on the far side of the room with Mr. Clark and could tell by her blazing eyes that she was still mad about the worker putting her and her kids in danger.

  “The company that provided the equipment was pleased by the report we sent and are coming out in a few days to test enhancements that will keep it from being hacked. I doubt we’ll have that issue here, but they want to use our system as a guinea pig before they offer it to companies and cities that do face hacking problems.”

  Zoey’s dad, Doc Reg, asked, “Will we get to keep the system?”

  “Yes. Thanks to Bernadine’s connections, tech companies are lining up to use Henry Adams to test their prototypes, and we’re here to accept all offers. Any other questions?”

  No one had any, so the colonel retook his seat at the table with his wife, Sheila.

  The next report was from Alfonso and Maria’s dad, Fire Chief Luis Acosta. “The firehouse is up and running and ready to go.” Applause greeted the news. “We’ll have the ribbon cutting on Saturday at noon and everyone is invited. So far, we have nine men and women trained to be volunteer firefighters, but we’re looking into hiring a couple of certified people, too. I’ll keep you posted on that. Any questions?”

  No one had anything for him, so he retook his seat next to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Ruiz.

  Amari’s dad thanked them. “Now, I want to welcome a few new people to the community. First, Sam and Brenda Miller, owners of the new coffee shop and bakery. They come to us from Vegas.”

  In response to the applause, the couple stood. It was Amari’s first time seeing them. He didn’t care about the coffee shop part. The few times he’d tasted coffee, he’d been shocked by how awful it tasted. He liked the idea of a bakery, though. It made him think about the one in Detroit that often gave poor kids like him day-old doughnuts and pastries. At the time he hadn’t known the things were stale; they were filling and sweet.

  His dad asked the couple, “The grand opening is tomorrow?”

  Mrs. Miller responded, “Yes. Six a.m.”

  A buzz of excitement filled the room. Amari’s eyes strayed to his grandfather, who didn’t appear as impressed as everyone else. Amari wondered why. It came to him that maybe he saw the bakery as competition for the diner.

  Next up was the new custodian, Ms. Lisa Stockton. Amari glanced Devon’s way and saw him laughingly say something to Zoey, who gave him a scathing eye roll in return. Since their dad introduced Ms. Stockton to the class the day she was hired, Devon had been making jokes about her resembling a frog and wanted everyone to secretly call her Mr. Toad. Nobody signed on. Amari supposed Devon had said something along those lines to Zoey just now. Granted, with her acne-scarred skin, bulbous eyes, and chubby body, she did resemble a mud-brown toad. Amari liked bestowing nicknames, but not one that would intentionally hurt a person’s feelings.

  “Thanks for the welcome,” Ms. Stockton responded to the round of applause. “I wish I could stay, but I’m on the clock and need to get back to work.” With a wave she made for the exit.

  Mr. Abbott was introduced next, but because he’d been eating at the Dog since taking over for Mr. James, most people had already met him and knew his story; still, he did stand and nod thanks.

  “Last but not least, Ms. Tina Craig, a long
time friend of Bernadine’s.” The woman was tall and tan and had red hair. As she stood and smiled in response to her welcome, his dad said, “Ms. Craig is going to build a bed-and-breakfast behind the Sutton Hotel.”

  Amari quietly asked Leah, “What’s a bed-and-breakfast?”

  “It’s like a hotel in a house. You get a room, but the owner just gives you breakfast.”

  Having stayed in hotels on vacation, he was puzzled by her explanation. “No lunch or dinner or room service?”

  She shook her head. “Only breakfast.”

  He didn’t understand why people would stay in a place where you only got breakfast. He made a mental note to ask his mom about it.

  His dad added, “In a perfect world, we’d have Ms. Craig’s place built before winter so she could start taking reservations, but as I told her, a lot of things need to be done first.”

  Former mayor and now barber Riley Curry stood up and declared, “Sounds like a losing proposition to me. No one’s going to stay in a bed-and-breakfast. Something more profitable could be built on that land.”

  “Oh, sit down!” yelled his boss, Kelly Douglas, and mumbles of agreement followed.

  He ignored it and plowed ahead. “I’m going to run for mayor next year, and I—”

  “Will get one vote this time, instead of two,” Bing called out.

  Snickering followed.

  Amari saw Ms. Craig try hiding her smile and fail.

  Looking perturbed, Ms. Bernadine asked, “What do you want built instead?”

  “I don’t know, but when I become mayor—”

  A chorus of boos rained down, as did more yells that he sit his behind down, effectively drowning out whatever else he planned to say. When the derision continued, he glared and sat.

  “Eccentric,” Preston cracked.

  Grinning, Amari gave him a high five.

  His dad then gave details on the upcoming reunion: how many people were expected and the weekend’s agenda. Amari knew how hard his parents had been working to get everything locked down, and how excited they were about seeing their old crew again.

  Leah said quietly, “My mom’s coming for the reunion.”