“Every gas station convenience store has Rolos. It’s like a rule,” Elliot countered, pulling into the parking lot.
“Trust me,” Lainey argued urgently. But not too urgently. Gran’s hand was holding hers, and she’d sense a spike in her heart rate. Deception was a delicate dance. “The one on Peach is better.”
“If I’m wrong, I’ll get you Rolos from the one on Peach.” He turned off the ignition and extended a hand to Gran.
Lainey knew they were made the moment they walked in. The man behind the counter, a gangly white guy with tattoo sleeves and a man bun, clocked Gran immediately.
“No. Nope. She’s banned. The old one. Banned.”
Elliot’s and Lainey’s heads swung toward Gran, the picture of innocence.
“Me?” Her eyelashes fluttered. “Banned? On what grounds?”
“Out,” the man demanded.
Elliot’s eyes shot between the man behind the counter and Gran. “You can’t be serious.”
Gran lifted a package of Rolos feebly. “Please, sir. Can’t I have just one?”
“Get her out of here before I call the cops,” the man threatened from behind a foggy barrier of plexiglass.
Deep lines carved into Elliot’s forehead. “She just wants a pack of Rolos, man.”
“I just want Rolos,” Gran repeated. She was wide-eyed, an ingenue confronting a wolf in the woods.
“The jig is up,” Lainey whispered to her grandmother, placing her pack of candy back on the shelf.
“I’ll go—if I must.” Gran was laying it on thick. “But Elliot,my dear boy, will you please purchase me this small, small package of my favorite treat?”
Lainey forced herself not to break. “Please, Gran. Let’s just go to the one on Peach.”
“No. We don’t need to do that.” Elliot grabbed the entire box of Rolos from between the boxes of Peanut M&M’s and Mike and Ikes and walked it to the counter. “Here. I want all of these. Are we still banned, or will you ring us up?” He plopped the box in front of the protective glass.
The man inhaled deeply through his nose. Lainey braced herself for a confrontation, but instead his tattooed fingers grabbed the scanner, and with a friendly beep, the machine rang up the packages of Rolos. One. By. One.
The clerk slid back a bag of chocolate tubes. “Cash or credit?”
Elliot handed the man his card and grabbed the bag in his very ownPretty Womanmoment. “Your candy, Ms. Davis.”
Gran’s smile was triumphant.
“You must call me Elaine, my dear.”
They drove along the lake all the way back to Gran’s place. “Wait right here,” she insisted. When Gran returned to the truck, Lainey and Elliot were standing in front of the hood, stretching their legs. She was holding a cream-colored hat box. “You’re a Groffie, right?” Gran asked Elliot.
Elliot blushed. “I don’t know about—”
“Groff was his first crush. Along with Ripley fromAlien,” Lainey interrupted. Elliot’s bright red face looked at her askance.
“Those are two very fine choices.” Gran passed Elliot the box. “This is everything I still have of his. It’s not much, but you might find it interesting.”
Elliot set the box on the hood and removed the lid carefully. “Are these his sketchbooks?”
Gran nodded her head. “The man loved to draw.Lateinto the night. Sometimes until three or four in the morning. He needed all of the lights on for it. It was actually very irritating. He was an odd man. And quite selfish. But brilliant, of course.”
Elliot’s fingers hovered over the paper reverently. “I still can’t believe you actually knew him.”
“I did, and I didn’t. He didn’t let anyonereallyknow him. It was a little sad, honestly. At his memorial service, his loved ones weren’t regaling each other with stories of their time with him. Everyone was asking questions. As if someone else in the room held the answers as to why this figure, who loomed so large in all of their lives, remained such a mystery.” Gran’s voice had the tenor of a woman dispensing wisdom, though Lainey wasn’t sure what she had to learn from an old recluse who drew all night with no regard for others’ sleep cycles.
