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“For me too. I... Thank you.” He stumbled a little like he wasn’t sure what he was going to say. She wondered what he had in mind to begin with.
“My pleasure.”
That made his eyes sparkle, and they turned together, walking into the assisted living center, where chaos seemed to reign. There were suitcases and bags and boxes stacked in the halls, with harried-looking residents and even more hassled-looking family members.
Clara saw one lady with a name badge on, who she assumed was an employee, but those were few and far between.
“Well. It’s worse than I thought,” Alex murmured as he led her down the hall, where they took a right, then a left and went down another long hall.
The people thinned out a little, but there were still bags and boxes, and it looked like the entire assisted living center was finding a new place to live.
“This is her room,” Alex said as he knocked on the door. It was closed but wasn’t latched. When he knocked, it opened further.
Clara noted the name on the door was Daisy Hendrix.
Daisy. That was a happy name.
Alex pushed the door open. “Gram?” he said as it swung wide.
“Alex.” An older lady with straight snow white hair, parted on the side in a no-nonsense pixie cut, looked up. Her voice sounded cultured, although old. “You’re here. You could have given me a little bit more notice. Normally I would be standing here telling everyone where to put everything, but it seems like all of my minions have left me, and I’ve had to do it for myself. It’s a wonder I didn’t have to cook my own breakfast this morning.”
The lady straightened, and her eyes landed on Clara, who was trying to bite back a laugh.
“You’re holding hands with a woman. I don’t think I’ve seen that in your entire life. This must be special.” She put a little emphasis on the word “special,” a little twist that made it sound like she cared deeply about Alex. That, more than anything else, made Clara love her instantly.
“It is special. Clara, this is my grandma, Daisy. Gram, this is the special woman in my life, Clara.”
“This is your administrative assistant? Your secretary? The lady you’ve told me about often when you visit.”
“Yeah. That’s Clara.”
Clara could almost say that Alex’s cheeks had reddened. She wasn’t sure, with his stubble hiding a good portion of his cheeks, but she almost thought he was embarrassed.
Allowing her hand to slip out of Alex’s hand, she put her arms out and hugged the older lady.
Daisy was not expecting it, but it didn’t take long for her arms to close around and for her to squeeze. For an older lady, she gave good hugs.
She smelled like lavender and disinfectant and intelligence and cheerfulness.
“Clara. It’s so nice to finally meet you. When my grandson would talk about you, I could see the look in his eye, and I would wonder if I would ever get to meet you before I passed on. I thought if there was ever going to be someone that my grandson would settle down with, it would be you.”
“We haven’t settled down yet.”
“But we have bought a school together.”
“Together?” Clara turned around and looked at him, her head tilted. She didn’t really have much to do with it.
“We went to see it together? We looked at it together. We decided that we’d rather have the school than the house.”
“You bought a school?” Daisy said, her wrinkled face housing shrewd green eyes that shifted between the two of them. “You probably don’t need to agree on whether or not you bought it together, as long as you agree that you bought it. A school.”
“Yeah. It was the school where I went to elementary school. I... I guess I must have talked rather fondly about it, and Alex is a bit of a sucker for a good story.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever called me a sucker, at least not for twenty years or more.”
“But being a sucker for a good story is a good thing,” Clara said.
He grinned at her, and they shared a smile over the space that separated them.
