He shuffled through the stack of photos. “Not seeing any here. Guess I was just always this cool.”
“Liar,” Harrison said, and he lunged for the photos to grab them away.
The resulting scuffle had both of them laughing until Harrison managed to snag a bunch.
“Found one!” Harrison crowed and held up a photo. “Drew’s emo phase!”
“Damnit,” Drew smacked the desk. “Burn that thing.”
I took the photo from Harrison. “It’s not that bad. Black nail polish and a black T-shirt with holes barely even counts as goth. It’s more like goth-light.”
“Mom wouldn’t let me dye my hair black,” he sighed.
“Oh, the trauma,” I mocked him. “Are you gonna write a sad poem about it?”
He pretended to glare at me then pulled out another drawer. “More photos, and lots of odds and ends. She was a little squirrel, hiding away treasures. Look.”
He held out a plastic gumball machine bubble with a pink-haired troll doll inside of it.
“I’m sure it had some sort of significance to her,” Harrison said. “I wouldn’t put it past her to have more of that kind of stuff in the safe, right next to her diamonds. Should we call Dad for the combination?”
I shook my head. “Let’s leave him out. We can crack it.”
“You don’t have to,” Drew said as he read a small piece of paper. “It’s in code, but it looks like the safe combination is Harrison’s birth month, my birth day, and your birth year.”
I chuckled. “Just like her to leave the combination to her jewels just steps away from the safe.”
“She trusted everyone. She only saw the good in people,” Harrison mused as he punched in the code.
The door sprang open with a metallic beep.
Our mother loved anything sparkly, and the four packed shelves in the safe proved it.
“Why didn’t Dad do something with all of this?” Harrison asked as he pulled out a tray of rings.
“Decision fatigue,” I suggested. “Should he keep them, or sell them, or give them away to friends, or auction them? It’s easier to ignore the whole lot. Plus, there’s the emotional baggage, since I’m sure there’s a special memory tied to every piece.”
“Like this one,” Harrison sighed as he held up a simple gold locket. “It sayslove knows no ageon the back. I remember Dad gave it to her when she turned forty and she was all freaked out about getting older. If it’s okay with you two, I’d like to take this one for Gwen.”
“Of course,” I replied. “You’re the oldest, you should get first pick.”
“Eh, not so fast,” Drew piped up. “I remember Mom giving Miranda some pieces when the two of you got married. So technically, you already got first pick.”
Mom had lived long enough to see Harrison’s wedding to his first wife—but quite frankly, we all knew the only reason he’d rushed to the altar in the first place was so Mom could be around to see it. That marriage had been doomed from the start.
Harrison groaned. “After the hellscape of our divorce, youknowI don’t like saying anything nice about her—but I will admit that she did the right thing when it came to the stuff Mom gave her. She returned every piece without a fight. But if it bugs you that much,youcan have the first round.”
Drew held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve already got the one piece I wanted: Mom’s first engagement ring. Emilia adores it.”
They both turned to me.
“That leaves you, the perpetual bachelor,” Harrison said. “Until now. What do you think Nina would like?”
The question caught me off guard. They knew exactly how our relationship had started, but they’d also seen us together and were probably drawing their own conclusions about how things were progressing between us. We weren’t exactly hiding the physical affection at this point.
Still. Were we at the hand-over-family-heirlooms stage?
“And it’s not just about Nina,” Drew added. “You could be a girl dad someday. Maybe take something for a future daughter?”
