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porch watching for them. I nearly missed them in that rental car. Wow, he really did it up right. He wasn’t in uniform, was he?”
    “No, it looked like a brand-new suit.”
    Grace looked at me and grinned. “Should we follow them?”
    “Don’t even think about it,” I said. “We’re going to stay as far away from the two of them as we can possibly get. Agreed?”
    “Yes, ma’am. Where are we going to eat?”
    There was only one place in town that I could think of where I wanted to eat. “Why don’t we go by the Boxcar and see what Trish is serving.”
    “As long as it’s cheeseburgers, it sounds good to me,” Grace said.
    A sudden thought struck me. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we leave our cars here? We can walk through the park to the Grill easier than we can drive it, since it’s a lot closer on foot.”
    Grace nodded. “Why not? It’s a beautiful night.”
    We strolled through the park together, past the Patriot’s Tree, the swings, and the horseshoe pits. When we got to the tracks, we followed them a short way to the Boxcar Grill. The diner was lit up, and I fell in love with the restaurant all over again. Having a donut shop in an old train depot was wonderful, but I was glad there was another remnant of the days when folks traveled by train in town as well.
    “Trish’s place is hopping tonight,” Grace said as we approached. “Do you think she’ll have room for us? We could always just grab a pizza and watch an old movie.”
    I locked my arm in hers. “Come on, I’ve got a feeling she’ll evict someone from their booth if she has to so she can seat us.”
    Grace nodded. “She’s lucky she’s so popular. Otherwise she’d have to be a little more careful about who she might offend.”
    I laughed at the thought. “Trish has a mind of her own.”
    “Like you don’t,” Grace said with a laugh.
    “I’m not so sure about that. I don’t have the luxury of turning anyone away from Donut Hearts.” It was true. The difference between red and black ink on my books could be just a few dozen donuts in the course of a day, so I had to do my best to make sure that every customer was happy with their order, though there were times I had to bite my tongue to keep from expressing how I really felt.
    I didn’t want to think about that at the moment, though. Donut Hearts was in good shape financially, and the nest egg I kept for rainy days was as healthy as it had been in a while.
    When we walked in, Trish was clearly glad to see us, even though the place was crowded. That was one of the things I loved about her. She always seemed to have a smile for me.
    “It’s Ladies’ Night, I see,” she said with a laugh. “Is there room for one more at your table? I haven’t had a bite all afternoon, and I’m starving.”
    “Can you just leave your post like that?” I asked. “I thought you had to be the hostess all the time when Hilda isn’t here.”
    She lowered her voice. “That’s usually true, but I just hired Lilly Jackson’s daughter, Allison, and she’s been bugging me to run the front along with the register all day. If we’re within twenty dollars either way at the end of the shift when she’s been working the front, I’ll consider it an unqualified success.” She looked at me and smiled as she added, “To put it in a way you can appreciate, she’s a few glazed donuts short of a dozen.”
    “Why don’t you just fire her?” I asked.
    Trish shrugged. “I wish I could, but I owe Lilly a huge favor, and this is going to just about cover it.”
    “But Allison could hurt your business,” I said as I looked around.
    “It hasn’t so far,” she added, and then explained, “Don’t worry; I’ve heard that she gets bored before she’s worked a week anywhere. I thought for sure she’d hit you up for a job by now, Suzanne.”
    “She’s probably next on the list, especially if she’s going about her job searches geographically,” Grace said.
    I wasn’t in any hurry to