She’d wanted to discuss it with Pop but he hadn’t been in the office on Monday. He’d texted her, saying he was going for a long drive to do some thinking, and after her chat with Heidi on Sunday night, she wondered if it had something to do with that, so she hadn’t pushed. He’d got back late last night and despite wanting to rush over she’d bided her time until today. But the minute he walked into the office he was in for an interrogation.
She’d barely fired up the computer before Pop entered, a big grin on his face.
‘Good morning, darling granddaughter of mine.’
His chipper greeting, combined with a funny salute, alerted Karly to the fact histhinking timemust’ve gone very well indeed.
‘Hey, Pop. How was your day off?’
‘Brilliant. Just what I needed.’ He shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the back of his chair.
‘Where’d you go?’
‘Here and there.’ He sat, linked his hands, and stretched forward. ‘Did me a lot of good.’
‘I can see that. You’re looking refreshed.’ Karly paused for dramatic effect. ‘I wonder if Heidi’s sporting the same glow.’
Pop sat forward so fast his knee clunked underneath the desk. ‘How did you know?’
‘Shewaswith you yesterday?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did she mention we had a little chat at Summer’s dinner party on Sunday night?’
‘Uh, it didn’t really come up in conversation.’
‘Why?’
‘Because she was too stunned, I think.’
When he didn’t say any more, Karly groaned. ‘Come on, Pop, you’ve got to give me more than that. What did you say to her?’
‘First, you tell me what you talked about with her on Sunday night.’
‘Not much. We cleared the air a bit, after a run-in when I was a kid and tried to pinch too many of her lamingtons at a picnic. She gave me what-for at the time, thoroughly deserved, I might add. Anyway, we chatted about that, and I asked her about you.’
Pop leaned forward, resting his forearms on his desk. ‘And?’
‘I think she likes you. She kept blushing all the time.’
Apparently satisfied with her answer, he nodded. ‘Well, I like her too. We’ve had a few ups and downs over the last week so I took her on a romantic hot air balloon ride at dawn and asked her to accompany me when I travel around Australia.’
Karly couldn’t hide her surprise. For a confirmed loner, Pop asking Heidi to go with him on his travels meant things were a lot more serious between them than she’d first thought. She might be getting a new gran after all.
‘That’s a big move, Pop. You know you’ve lived alone forever, right? And that being with someone twenty-four seven can be challenging?’
‘How would you know, missie? From where I’m sitting, you’ve never had a relationship at all.’
‘Ouch.’ Karly pretended to clutch her chest. ‘Lucky we’re used to being a couple of straight-shooters.’
‘It’s the only way to be. So, what do you think?’
While Karly wanted to tell Pop the truth because it’s what she’d always done—that he could be rushing into this and may regret it later—she tempered honesty with, ‘I think if Heidi makes you happy, you should do whatever it takes to capture that feeling and hang onto it.’
‘Yeah, that’s what I reckon, especially at my age.’
‘True. Though seventy is the new sixty.’