and then I was able to talk while she yelled. Eventually she ran up to her room and slammed the door. But when she got hungry she came downstairs, sullen and pouty. And you know what? That was okay. Because life can be rocky.”
“What did you do?” Remi asked.
“I hugged her, and she stood rigid as a wall. But,” Flossie said with a spark of joy in her eyes, “she knew I loved her even though she was being a sass-mouthed brat at that moment.” She looked at Aurelia and said, “If that little one knows you love her, everything else will fall into place. It’s okay to be exhausted and to feel lost. Calling Piper was the right thing to do. You’re learning, baby, and where children are concerned, that learning never ends.”
“Thanks, Grandma. You’re so good at making me feel better.”
Flossie reached across the table and patted Aurelia’s and Remi’s hands. “The world is filled with unhappy people trying to bring others down. Family should always try to lift your spirits.”
“Maybe you can help me,” Remi said.
“I can try, Remi. Are you doing what you love most?” Flossie asked.
Remi nodded. “Yes.”
“And you’re sure of that? Because my first love was music—”
“Music?” Aurelia asked. “I thought books were your greatest love.”
“Your grandfather was my greatest love. But my first love was singing. I wanted to be in the opera, but for love, one adapts and changes. When your mother was born, I set aside my affinity for music and nurtured my love of literature, which fit better into my life as a mother.”
They talked for a long while about love and life, and Aurelia told her all about the bookstore and the two employees she’d hired: Lazarus, the baby whisperer, and Hollis Marks, an English major with freckles, hair the color of pennies, and a knack for all things literary. She was excited for Flossie to meet her staff and see the bookstore when the renovations were finally complete. She and Remi would both be at the grand opening—if Aiden didn’t lock Remi up after he found out she was in town.
With a container full of her grandmother’s food, she hugged Flossie goodbye. “I love you, Grandma.”
“I love you too, bubbelah. This is for you.” She put a key in Aurelia’s hand and covered it with her own.
“A key? What is this to?”
“To our storage unit in Sweetwater. You know where it is. The crib you and your mother used is in it. It’s yours, darling, along with anything else you’d like for Bea.”
Aurelia hugged her. “Thank you. This means the world to me.”
“And you mean the world to me,” Flossie said sweetly. “You never knew this, but your grandfather and I called your mother Bea.”
Aurelia blinked several times, trying to understand. “You called her Abby.”
“To everyone else we referred to her as Abby, because that’s what she preferred when she first went off to kindergarten. But when we spoke of her privately, she was always our little Bea, which means bringer of joy, or she who brings happiness.”
“Oh, Grandma.” Aurelia tried to speak past the lump in her throat.
“It’s definitely fate,” Remi said.
“Yes, you’re right, Remi. Bea is the perfect name for the baby who opened Aurelia’s and Benjamin’s hearts to each other. And I’d like to think this is your mother’s way of showing us that she’s smiling down on us.”
Aurelia was still wiping away tears as she climbed into the car. “We need to go shopping.”
“Shopping? You hate shopping,” Remi reminded her.
“I hate shopping for me.”
“I need a better disguise than a baseball cap and dark sunglasses if we’re going shopping.”
“Suck it up, buttercup. I’m your bodyguard today, and I’m on a mission to show Ben just how much I want him and Bea in my life. Stalkers beware, because nobody’s going to get in our way.”
“Come on, peanut.” Ben lifted Bea’s carrier from his truck Thursday evening, relieved to see Aurelia’s car parked behind her apartment, since he’d been trying unsuccessfully to reach her for hours. But now he hesitated at the bottom of the steps, second-guessing himself. What if she was sleeping? Wasn’t the break supposed to allow her time and space to think her own thoughts? To do her own thing?
“I know,” he said to Bea. “But I want to be her thing. Let’s go get our girl.”
As he headed up the steps, the apartment door flew open and Aurelia and Remi bounded out, both of them laughing hysterically. He stopped halfway up,