“I was thinking we could send her to a movie or something,” Brady said.
“Why would she go without Lila? Or at all? She’s on the clock here. This isn’t a week’s vacation for her, she has to work,” I pointed out.
Brady paced back and forth, his boots sending sawdust flying. “She’d leave for the right reason.”
“Something to do with her boyfriend?” I ventured.
“Doubtful. What do we really know about her?” Brady asked.
“She’s smart,” I said.
“And shy,” Gideon added. “She seems pretty devoted to Lila.”
“She’s good with making and editing videos,” I said.
Brady paced a few more times. “There’s not much there we can use.”
“She has bad taste in men and in cars,” Gideon said.
“Not helping.” Brady frowned as he thought it through.
I snapped my fingers. “She knows art.”
“What?”
“She knows about art, and she likes it. She commented on the techniques used in Gran’s landscapes.”
“That might be something we can work with,” Brady said.
Gideon already had his phone out. “There’s an impressionist exhibit at the Art Institute.” He swiped and tapped on the little screen. “And there are still a few tickets for tomorrow night.”
Brady clapped his hands together. “That’s perfect. It’ll get her out of the inn, and she’ll enjoy it as well.”
I shook my head. “She’s not going to abandon Lila. If you’ve noticed that Lila’s upset, then Penny has, too.”
Gideon tilted his head to the side, like he often did when he was focused on the inn’s finances. “What if Lila encouraged her to go?”
“Why would she do that?” I asked.
Brady’s face grew animated. “All we have to do is tell her that a friend of ours has an extra ticket and needs someone to go with them. Lila will know how much Penny would like this kind of thing.”
“But what friend would take her?” Gideon asked.
“We’ll have to bribe a single buddy of ours.” I knew a couple of guys from my softball team who would subject themselves to an art exhibit if the price was right and included a case of beer.
Brady frowned. “We don’t want to get Penny in trouble with her boyfriend.”
“Plus, any single guy we sent with her would hit on her. She’s not exactly hideous to look at,” Gideon said.
He was right. The last thing Penny needed was a horny young man drooling over her while she tried to enjoy the exhibit.
Brady snapped his fingers. “Sandy will do it. Sandy from my diner.”
“She likes art?” Sandy was great, but she didn’t strike me as a lover of culture.
“She likes Chicago. She’d jump at the chance for a night in the city as long as it’s on our dime.”
Which likely meant Gideon’s dime. He was tapping away on his phone, probably already purchasing the tickets. It bothered me that we couldn’t all take turns paying for things, but the truth was, sometimes we couldn’t.