“I don’t know all the details.”
Boss Man hopped onto the counter, and she shooed him away. “You know more than I do.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult.”
“Really?” she asked, tilting her head.
“It’s just that some things are meant to stay in a family.”
“Are you related to Olivia?”
“Not exactly.” He refilled his coffee mug. “But she treated my grandfather like he was family. Left her entire estate and a trust in his name. That became the Via Belle Literary Foundation.”
She picked up their empty plates and stacked them in the sink. “When she passed away?”
He didn’t answer.
“I guess it’s none of my business why she left Catawba.”
“That’s true,” he said, “but my grandmother seems to think you and I need to reach a compromise.”
She leaned back against the counter. “What sort of compromise?”
“Gram wants me to show you Haven House, and I want to see what you found with Simon Farrow’s name. But only if—”
She sighed. “Here we go.”
“My grandmother trusts you, and I can’t think of a single reason to convince her otherwise.”
“Better be careful, Finn. That almost sounds like a compliment.”
“I manage the foundation, but Ingrid is in charge of Haven House.” He finished his coffee. “She’s asked me to let you in on our family secret, but you’ll have to sign a document for confidentiality.”
Her eyebrows climbed. “What are you doing up there?”
“You’ll see.”
With someone else, she might be concerned, but in spite of his annoying behavior, this man seemed to follow every letter of the law. “You have a good family, Finn. Don’t ever take that for granted.”
“They’re my rock,” he said. “The Lamb family adopted my grandfather, and then he collected family along the way. Called almost everyone a brother or sister.”
“I wish I could have met him.”
He covered the ceramic dish and put it in her refrigerator. “Anyone who cared about Via Belle was a friend to him.”
“Did he ever stay at the children’s home?” she asked, wondering if he’d still lived there at the same time as her mother.
“I don’t think so.”
“My mom would have been younger than him by about ten years, but they could have met in town.”
“He returned here to teach in the 1950s.”
She smiled. “When my mom and Aunt Marcia were in high school.”
“It’s a very small world around here.”
“And an even smaller one, perhaps.” Finn was trusting her, and just maybe, in this small world of Catawba, he might also have some answers for her family. “I’ll be right back.”
