“I didn’t know that.”
She nods eagerly and I can tell that this is one of the few things that light her up inside.
“Oh yeah.”
“Do you miss the thrift store?”
She shrugs one shoulder. “Sometimes only because it felt like a connection to my parents. But not really. It just started getting to be too much for Gabriel, Rhiannon, and me to manage with everything else going on in our lives.” She pauses, then smiles a little to herself. “The thing I probably miss the most is the time I got to spend with Gabriel. Just the two of us working side by side outside, refinishing some piece I dragged home from theside of the road. I had the vision, and he had the skill. He taught me a lot during those days.”
Something about that makes my heart squeeze. Probably because I can picture it so clearly. Eden at ten years old, still trying to make sense of losing her parents. Gabriel in his early twenties, grieving them too, and suddenly carrying the weight of becoming a father to two girls with no roadmap and no one to guide him.
The two of them outside together. Sawdust in the air. Him showing her how to sand the grain just right, how to bring an old, forgotten piece back to life. Probably working on a table not that different from the one he built.
I wonder if he ever looks back at those days and realizes what an incredible job he did with her. Eden seems so… whole. Like she has a clear plan for her future and isn’t worried. Happy. Not jagged around the edges the way some people get after childhood breaks them. The way mine did at times. And honestly, Eden probably had more reason to come out jaded than I ever did.
I force a small smile at her. “That’s really beautiful. Sounds like he was a pretty great big brother. And a good stand-in dad.”
She smiles, soft and certain. “He was.” A beat passes before she adds quietly, “The best.”
I clear the emotion in my throat. “I know I’ve only been here a night, but I can see your creative touch all over this home.”
She grins and takes another sip of coffee. “Thank you. What about you? Gabriel said you’re a teacher.”
I nod. “Kindergarten.”
She tilts her head, considering me. “I hope this isn’t offensive, but I wouldn’t peg you as a kindergarten teacher. More like… middle school.”
I laugh. “I also bartend at Natasha’s bar and occasionally dosome private investigation work.”
Eden snaps her fingers, grinning. “The PI work makes sense.Balance.”
I nod. She gets it. “Exactly. The kids soften my edges a bit.”
“Well, that’s fun.” She tilts her head toward the tray that I’m still holding in my hands. “Where are those going? Someone special?”
I glance down at the cookies I’m holding. “My grandma. She lives in town. I’m dropping these off, and in return, I’ll probably have to endure a lecture on how I am crashing her and her new boyfriend’s holiday weekend.”
She laughs easily. “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have grandparents like that.”
“You didn’t know yours?”
She shakes her head. “Both sets passed away before mom and dad did.”
Damn.
“You wanna come with me?” I offer. “My grandma might be blunt, but she’s never turned someone away.”
“Thank you for that but I promised Rhiannon I’d swing by to play with Piper when I got home today. She’s getting close to her due date now and exhausted. You have fun.”
I smile, nod, and head out to my car.
My grandma’s house sits around the lake too, like Gabriel’s and Natasha’s. But the lake is huge, which means the drive takes a while. The road curves along the shoreline with a strict twenty-five mile an hour limit, the kind that makes you crawl whether you want to or not.
By the time I wind my way down the last bend and pull into her gravel driveway, I’m already bracing myself for the inevitable:What have you been doing since you moved out of my home? Haveyou met a nice man yet? When are you going to settle down, mija?conversation.
My tires crunch over the gravel as I turn into the driveway, tapping the brakes. But before I can even reach for the door handle, I freeze. Because parked right there, clear as day, is a motorcycle. A very familiar motorcycle.
My stomach drops. There is absolutely no way Gabriel is at my grandma’s house right now.
