She opened the door. “And now it is time for you to go,” she said.
“Seriously, Addie-roo.” I grabbed my suitcase and rolled it out onto the front porch. “I’ll bet he could make you purr.”
The door slammed shut and I laughed all the way to my rental car.
Many hours later a cab delivered me to the sidewalk outside my house. I waited patiently for the driver to unload my bags from the trunk and then I carried them up the front steps, sleepy from the flight and happy to be home, despite being sad to have left Seattle and my friend.
I unlocked the front door and glanced over at the corner of my stoop, as had become habit, to the marred shoe I’d left there in disgust weeks ago. Except it looked as if someone had moved it. And there was something inside.
Hauling my bags into the house, I turned on the foyer light and stepped back outside, crouching to get a better look at the shoe and what looked like a tiny scroll inside, tied with a blue ribbon.
“What the hell?” I murmured, grabbing the rolled paper and pulling off the ribbon.
With a bemused look, I unrolled the thick piece of parchment paper and read the poem written inside.
* * *
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I have cleaned the poo
From your favorite shoe
* * *
~Graham Forrester
* * *
I laughed and picked up the shoe, turning it over to find that was in fact now clean. And then my heart gave a little thump of delight knowing he’d been here and had touched my sneaker.
“Worst Cinderella retelling ever,” I said and chuckled.
Going inside, I set my now clean shoe next to its mate, then padded into the kitchen to make a cup of cocoa before bed. I was reaching for a mug when I realized I was still holding the poem, clasping it to my heart like a lovelorn character from a Regency era novel.
“Well shit,” I said, and then tossed it to the countertop as if it had suddenly caught fire.
Chapter 13
Graham
“Graham!”
I could hear my kid sister’s squeal from a hundred feet away and watched as students’ heads turned to follow Marley tearing across the school lawn. Bracing myself for impact, I laughed, pleased that despite being one of the “popular” girls in school, it had never deterred her from unabashedly showing her love for her big brother. Especially today, seeing as I’d flown from New York to Colorado to surprise her on her eighteenth birthday.
“Happy birthday, kiddo,” I said as she leapt on me in a tackle hug.
“Hey,” she said, quickly letting me go and standing back, hands on hips. “I’m officially an adult now. No more of this kiddo stuff!”
“You paying for your phone and car insurance?”
She glared.
“Kiddo it is,” I said.
“Your reasoning is stupid. I don’t have a job to pay for that stuff.”
