Out front, the lobby was mercifully empty, and she was about to start up the stairs when the bellman slipped in from the dining room, pulling the door softly shut behind him. Seeing her, he whirled around, whipping his hands behind his back as if she’d caught him stealing. “Evening, ma’am,” he said, bowing quickly. […]
An hour later, when Cheryl came down for dinner, she had redone her hair and makeup and slipped into a sleeveless black Marc Jacobs number she had worn only once before, at an Alpha Kappa Alpha cotillion the previous fall. The dress, with its shirred silk and its low scooped back, was a touch too […]
Frank’s grandfather, Dr. Nelson Watkins, sat slumped in a rocking chair at the far end of the shaded porch, listening politely as a bosomy older woman lectured the table on how, precisely, she was related to the young Buford couple who ran the hotel. “Sorry to interrupt,” Frank said, cutting in. “Grandpa, there’s somebody here […]
“This here’s the start of the old Buford place,” Mae was saying up front. “Where?” Frank asked, twisting around to look out the window. “I don’t see anything.” Cheryl stirred in the back seat, raising her head from the corner of the window. She wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep, but it must […]