It's Never too Late

“I’m sorry for butting in, but a few of us have been talking over at the diner and we were thinking that, if you don’t mind, we’d like to stop by and meet your grandmother. If you think she’d like that, that is.”

“I’m sure she’d love it.”

“I understand she’s in a wheelchair.”

“That’s right. She has MS.”

Veronica frowned. “I’m so sorry to hear that. There’s a gentleman at Big Spirits, that’s a drop-in center for the elderly here in town, connected to Little Spirits, the children’s—”

“The day care, yes, I know,” Mark told her. “I have a...friend...who’s new to town and just started taking his son there.”

“Oh, you must be talking about Jon. He and Abe live around the corner from me. He’s such a nice young man. And that baby. I told him to call me any time he needs a sitter, but he doesn’t seem too keen on leaving the boy with strangers. Anyway, I’d be happy to stop by and introduce myself to your grandmother. Maybe we’d have something in common....”

“Maybe.” If nothing else, the two could talk themselves to sleep. Stifling a grin, he couldn’t wait to tell Addy about the woman.

“Anyhow, there’s a gentleman at Big Spirits who has MS. Maybe your grandmother could come to the center sometime and meet him. Or she can just come and play games and eat with us.”

“Thanks for the suggestion,” Mark said, easing his wallet out of his pocket. Nonnie needed people in her life.

“Oh, dear, here I am talking a blue streak when you’re such a busy man,” Veronica said. “Just tell your grandmother I’ll stop by sometime tomorrow afternoon. Does she play cribbage? Maybe we could play cribbage. She shouldn’t be sitting there all alone. Especially not with MS.”

Veronica was still talking as Mark paid Hank and made his way to the door. Smiling, he loaded the lights and the vacuum into the back of the truck. Nonnie, meet Veronica. Veronica, meet Nonnie.

Thankfully he’d be at work tomorrow afternoon.

* * *

ADDY WAS WORRIED. She hadn’t seen Mark in three days. She’d thought about him all the way through her botany lecture, planning the nonchalant way she’d greet him when she saw him outside class.

And she’d been inordinately disappointed when he hadn’t been there.

But she was worried about more than her ridiculous obsession with her next-door neighbor. Over the weekend, she’d found something else in the Montford faculty files that bothered her. Which was why she set off for the physical education building to look for Randi Foster’s office.

Randi Foster, who, before her marriage to the local vet, Zack Foster, had been Randi Parsons.

Will’s baby sister.

She’d known Randi was back in Shelter Valley, working at the university. She’d purposely steered clear of the physical education department until now. Until she’d reached the Ps and had reason to look through Randi’s personnel file.

She hadn’t seen Randi in person for twenty-five years. Hadn’t spoken to her. But she’d watched her play golf on television.

Would she still have that blond hair? She’d always thought Randi beautiful with her combination of light hair and dark brown eyes. Randi had been, what, ten when she’d lived with the Parsonses? Just a kid, herself.

She looked at the room numbers along the top of the wall. She was almost there.

The woman wasn’t going to recognize her. Will hadn’t even recognized her. But Addy remembered Randi. The older girl’s room had been right across the hall from hers during the six months she spent in the Parsonses’ home. There were many nights that Randi had come into that room to rescue little Addy from her nightmares.

The door to Randi’s office was open.

A woman sat at the desk, writing.

Her hair was still blond. And very short.

Addy took a deep breath. She thought about Will Parsons on trial. Out of a job. Thought of all the people who would be hurt. Unless Addy could formulate an airtight case against anyone who had a score to settle with him or the university. She had to know what they might be up against.

“Ms. Parsons?” Randi, a former golf pro, still used her maiden name at work.

Addy had known she worked at the university. She hadn’t known that Will had promoted his baby sister to women’s athletic director.