Vi’s groan of disgust let Blake know what she thought of that. He was pretty grossed out himself. “This has been fun,” he said, “but it’s time I took you home, Vi.”
The lovebirds didn’t seem to notice or care.
As Blake was about to signal for the check, Vi held up her finger to hold on. “Wait’ll Gran finds out about the down payment,” she said, loudly enough that Caroline finally pulled away.
“What do you mean, Vi?” she said, frowning.
“Malcom has decided to foot the entire down payment on the bigger unit. He won’t let you pay anything.”
The frown deepened. “I don’t understand. Is this true, Malcom?”
“It is.” He gave Blake a dirty look. “Why did you tell Vi?”
“Why didn’t you tell Caroline?” Blake shot back.
“Yes, why did you hide it from me?” Caroline’s fists settled on her hips, a challenging pose impossible to ignore.
“Because it was supposed to be a surprise, my wedding gift to you.” Grandpop’s voice had risen to shout level.
Heads turned toward the table. “Well, I reject it,” Caroline replied with equal heat. “I’m not a charity case, and it’s important to me to pay my share. Which you know. We discussed splitting both the down payment and the monthly fees.”
“You don’t need to do that, and youwillaccept my gift.”
“Don’t you dare tell me what I will do,” Caroline returned. “I won’t.”
No sign of affection now, not the way their eyes shot daggers at each other.
“Please, keep your voices down,” Vi told them. “People are staring and it’s uncomfortable.”
Blake stood up. “Excuse me—I’ll be right back,” he said, but neither of the seniors seemed to have heard him or Vi.
He headed to the front of the room and quickly paid the bill. When he returned to the table, they were still going at it, although their voices weren’t as loud. “Let’s go,” he told Vi, and they slipped out.
Upset that hercomment had caused Gran and Malcom’s very public shouting match, Vi shook her head as she and Blake neared the Lexus. “I feel bad about sneaking away like this, but they left us with no choice.”
“We didn’t sneak, we told them we were leaving. They were too wrapped up in their fight to either know or care. Pretty awful, huh??”
“I’m sure they’ll figure it out, especially when the server tells them I paid the bill. What made you bring up Grandpop’s plan to pay for the full down payment and not let Caroline chip in?”
“I didn’t intend to, but it popped into my head and out of my mouth. Gran has always insisted on paying her own way. True, at first she agreed that I could use my bonus to make the down payment on her unit, but by the time I delivered the bad news about the company’s bankruptcy she’d already changed her mind.”
“Saying what you did was a smart move, Vi.”
“Was it?”
She must’ve looked as appalled as she felt, because he said, “Don’t feel bad—it’s good they’re fighting.”
“Not to me. I hate fights.” She wrapped her arms around her waist. “Reminds me of my parents.”
“Our goal was to change things up between them so they’d slow down and think more about what they really want. And we did, thanks to you.”
“Only I didn’t expect a yelling match.” She’d never seen Gran so mad. “I figured they’d talk it through, maybe even argue, but not with such anger.”
“Grandpop gets loud when he’s rattled and always has. That’s why I elbowed you when you brought up the prenup like it was no big deal.”
“And I was right, it didn’t faze either one of them. But someone had to get the conversation going again, and you didn’t say a word. Now, if you’d warned me about his temper, I might not have been so straightforward.”
“I probably should’ve. I kept quiet because I wanted to ease into the subject. I didn’t want them to get mad and walk out. What a surprise when Caroline was fine with it.”
