She raised one eyebrow.

“I hope you weren’t expecting the mayor.”

Mrs.

Gable was Lucas’s paternal grandmother.

After his father died when Lucas was thirteen, she had helped raise him and Derek while their mother worked evening shifts.

She had taught them to wash clothes, prepare meals, and care for people who needed assistance.

I had not invited a stranger to shame him.

I had invited one person whose values he had once admired, and whose judgment he still respected.