And as far as Kenneth Bostwick was concerned, she knew that Herman’s widowed father at the age of seventy married a thirty-something-year-old woman and Kenneth had been their only child. Bella gathered from bits and pieces she’d overheard from Kenneth’s daughter, Elyse, that Kenneth and Herman had never gotten along because Herman thought Kenneth’s mother, Belinda, hadn’t been anything but a gold digger who married a man old enough to be her grandfather.

“Finding out Herman had a granddaughter came as a surprise to everyone around these parts.”

Bella chuckled softly. “Yes, and it came as quite a surprise to me to discover I had a grandfather.”

She saw the surprise that touched his face. “You didn’t know about Herman?”

“No. I thought both my father’s parents were dead. My father was close to forty when he married my mother and when I was in my teens he was in his fifties already so I assumed his parents were deceased since he never mentioned them. I didn’t know about Herman until I got a summons to be present at the reading of the will. My parents didn’t even mention anything about the funeral. They attended the services but only said they were leaving town to take care of business. I assumed it was one of their usual business trips. It was only when they returned that they mentioned that Herman’s attorney had advised them that I was needed for the reading of the will in a week.”

She pulled in a deep breath. “Needless to say, I wasn’t happy that my parents had kept such a thing from me all those years. I felt whatever feud was between my father and grandfather was between them and should not have included me. I feel such a sense of loss at not having known Herman Bostwick.”

Jason nodded. “He could be quite a character at times, trust me.”

For some reason she felt she could trust him…and in fact, that she already did. “Tell me about him. I want to get to know the grandfather I never knew.”

He smiled. “There’s no way I can tell you everything about him in one day.”

She returned the smile. “Then come back again for tea so we can talk. That is, if you don’t mind.”

She held her breath thinking he probably had a lot more things to do with his time than to sip tea with her. A man like him probably had other things on his mind when he was with someone of the opposite sex.

“No, I don’t mind. In fact I’d rather enjoy it.”

She inwardly sighed, suddenly feeling giddy, pleased. Jason Westmoreland was the type of man who could make his way into any woman’s hot and wild fantasies, and he’d just agreed to indulge her by sharing tea with her occasionally to talk about the grandfather she’d never known.