The idea popped into her mind fully formed.She couldn’t.She shouldn’t.She bit into her sandwich and chewed.It was wrong.No, not wrong.In fact she had every right to be there.It was, after all, a business.
“We need to go to the bank,” she said.
“Bor-ring.”
“I have to open a new checking account and we need to move your college fund out here.”
Billie sat up straight.“I have money?”
“For college.”
“Oh.But maybe I could—”
“No.”
“But you didn’t let me—”
“No.”
“What if I don’t want to go to college?”
Jane smiled sweetly.“Baseball scouts go to college games.”Billie nibbled on a Chinese noodle.“I’m going.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
“Do I have to come with you to the bank?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s the bank?”
“In town.”
“Which one is it?”
“There’s only one.Barrington First National.”
Billie frowned.“That’s Adam’s name.”
“It’s his bank.”
* * *
“Here are the changes you requested, Mr.Barrington.”
Adam stared blankly at the folder.
“From the loan committee meeting on Monday,” his secretary reminded him patiently.
“Of course, Edna.”He took the offered pages and smiled.“I’ll look at them this afternoon.”
She raised her penciled eyebrows until they disappeared under the sprayed fringe of hair that curled to precisely the midpoint of her forehead.“When else?”she asked.
“What?Oh, the reports.Yes, I always read them on Friday afternoon.You’re right.”He glanced at his watch.“On time, as usual.Thank you.”
Edna’s narrow lips pursed together.Her heavy makeup and the fitted long narrow dresses and jackets she wore made her look like a time traveler from 1940.She’d been with him since he’d taken over the bank and with his father for who knows how many years before that.
“Are you feeling all right, Mr.Barrington?”she asked.
