To his relief, Lola chuckled and squeezed his hand. "I understand. I am too, of course." Her gaze went distant, and her smile soft. "Peter really was a sweetheart. I was happy with him, and desperately sad when he died. It wasn't like losing you had been, but how could it be? I was so young then, and everything was a new experience. When Peter died…well, I'd been through something like that before, hadn't I. It was terrible, but it was something I knew I could live through. And frankly it would have been terribly awkward to find out you were still alive while he was," she said ruefully. "I simply don't know what I would have done."
"I wouldn't have expected you to change anything about your life at all."
Lola's gaze softened further. "I know. And that wouldn't have made it any easier. But it's not what happened, so at least I don't have to figure it out. Maybe this is the only timing that ever would have worked, given how things were."
"It's enough," Sam replied, simply. "But God," he added, remembering what she'd said earlier. "No wonder you didn't want to come to the house, if my mother lit into you like that. Would it help if I had an exorcism done?"
Surprise flashed across Lola's face, followed by a burst of laughter loud enough to make the soda jerk kid glance their way and smile. "No," she said, amused, and then, even more amused, "Maybe!" She went back to her ice cream soda, taking sips between laughter. "No, I—oh, do you know what would help, maybe? Tell me about your foster kids. At least something. Tell me how they cleared all the bad air out of the house, or something."
"Well, if you've ever changed a diaper, you know they didn't clearallthe bad air out…"
Lola gave a delicate shudder. "There are some things about parenthood I don't miss. Really, though. How did you get into fostering? I don't mean to be sexist or old-fashioned about it, but I'd think a single man would have a hard time becoming a foster parent?"
"A single rich man with a staff of five has less trouble clearing the paperwork than you might think," Sam said dryly, "but I was also able to take in kids with certain special needs, and that helped."
"Really? Special needs?"
"Yes, but not the kind you're thinking. I'd really like to explain it to you, but it would help a lot if we went back to the house. Or at least somewhere private."
"All right. Between the dirty diaper exorcisms and the ice cream soda, I feel more fortified than I expected. Let's do it." Lola smiled at him, and Sam felt hope bloom in his heart.
CHAPTER9
This time yesterday,Lola had been certain she would never come back to Virtue for the long term. Reuniting with Sam, just for the afternoon, had thrown all of that—not into uncertainty, she thought. It was just that she now knew, with absolute confidence, that she could come back here and be with Sam and be happy for the rest of her life. It hadn't seemed possible, a day ago. Today, anything did.
Anything except walking the seven miles out to Sam's estate. She stood on the sidewalk outside the ice cream parlor, arms akimbo and astonishment in her voice. "What do you mean, you didn'tdriveinto town today?"
"The investors," Sam said with helpless amusement. "They already had a vehicle, and I think I imagined we'd go back out to the house to talk about things this evening, so I drove in with them."
"Even if this was fifty years ago and not March, I wouldn'twalkto your house, Sam!"
"No, no, I know." He took his phone out, laughing. Lines crinkled around his eyes when he did, and the beard that she was growing fonder of turned up at the corners of his mouth. "I'll call a taxi. I don't plan to walk that far in the cold, either. Not in this condition, anyway."
"What condition," Lola said, "being seventy?"
"I won't be seventy forweeks. Yes, hi!" he said into the phone. "I need a taxi at the Silver Dollar Ice Cream Parlor, please? Or we can walk up the block to the square." He paused, nodded, and said, "See you in a minute."
Lola looked at his phone curiously as he hung up. "I didn't think anybody called actual taxis anymore. I thought you'd use one of the ride share services. And an app."
"The township banned rideshares," Sam said absently as he put the phone away. "There still aren't a lot of taxis, but putting them out of business for somebody else's side hustle seemed like a bad idea. When people said they couldn't make ends meet, the town council voted to raise the minimum wage in the township."
"You're kidding."
"I'm not. It was controversial, obviously, but strangely enough nobody went out of business." Sam squinted down the street, as if the taxi might somehow sneak up on them. "That's not true. A couple placesdidgo out of business, but it turned out they were carrying unmanageable debt loads that would have driven them under within a few months anyway. They mostly just gave up when the minimum wages rose. I know one place refinanced and they're still going." He cast her a brief smile. "I try to pay attention, for a man who hides in his house on the edge of town."
"Virtue is so much more vibrant than I remember it, or expected it to be," Lola admitted, then cast a flirtatious smile at Sam. "And I don't think it's just that I'm happy to see you and it's casting a rosy glow over everything."
He laughed and opened the taxi door for her when it drove up. "No. It's doing well. Unexpectedly well."
She scooted over so he could climb in the same side she'd gotten in, and leaned against him as he tucked his arm around her shoulders, as if nothing had changed in fifty years. And in some ways, nothing important had. Her heart still soared when she saw Sam, and that was what mattered. She murmured, "Thank God Charlee called me," and he turned his head to smile into her hair, breath stirring it because she'd put her hat in her coat pocket.
"I'm going to have to thank her," he said just as quietly. "I didn't expect my life to be completely different by dinnertime, today."
"Is it?" Lola asked happily.
Sam tilted back enough to be able to see her, his eyebrows lifted a little. "Isn't it?"
"It is." He wasrightthere. Lola lifted her chin a bit and pressed her mouth to his.
