His lips quirk up on one side. “Slow mornings are the best. No one can ever change my mind.” He shifts on his feet and then murmurs, “Kind of weird watching the sun come up without you, though.”
My heart does a weird fluttering thing and heat dances over my flesh. “I’ll be there tomorrow. Got caught up reading Grandma’s columns.”
I sip my coffee and then grab the laptop to show him, pointing at the last line.
“The strawberries are ripe and ready for picking, Amos. Grab some chocolate on the way home,” Elias says, frowning. “I don’t get it.”
“When read alone, there’s nothing to get,” I admit, “but when you pour through all of her stuff, you begin to see a pattern. She signs off every column and even some of her letters with this same phrase.”
“What does it mean?”
“I think it means what we think it means. She misses him and she’s always waiting for him.”
He nods, eyebrows pinching together thoughtfully. “Why are you so excited about this?”
Elias might be slow to speak or answer or get rolling in the mornings, but he’s smart as a whip. I like that he’s able to grab the thread I’m unraveling here.
“I think,” I say, heart lurching in my chest, “that this was another way for her to search for her husband. The letters had nowhere to go because she had no destination. But thegazette columns are searchable. It’s just another form of bread crumbing for her to guide her husband back home.”
It’s incredibly sad because it was all wasted effort, but it helps me pull together more of their love story for my book. They couldn’t be together in real life, but I can bring together everything I’ve learned about them and put it all in one book. For Grandma.
The doorbell rings, startling us both, and Elias excuses himself. I quickly dress, brush my teeth, and then, with Clo on my shoulder, check to see who’s visiting. I find Elias out back with a woman around my mom’s age and a teenage girl near the aviary.
I hurry outside and say hello to them, shooting Elias a questioning look.
“This is Agatha Bell and her granddaughter Julia,” Elias says, gesturing at the women. “They heard about your call to rehome Goldie’s budgies.”
For a second, the air is sucked from my lungs. This is really happening. I didn’t think it’d be so quick.
“Oh,” I say, blinking rapidly. “How, uh, did you know?”
Agatha smiles at me. “Hattie told me early this morning while making my coffee. Julia has been asking for a pet, and this seemed serendipitous.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to explain that budgies aren’t easy pets. They require lots of attention and care. Children shouldn’t get them willy nilly.
I grimace at the last thought.
Willy nilly?
Grandma’s language is rubbing off on me. Soon, I’ll be just like the rest of these fine folks of Budgie Bay. Too terrified of Grandma’s ghost haunting me from the grave to say anything too naughty.
“I hurt myself playing softball,” Julia says softly, voice a mere whisper. “It’s been hard and lonely.”
Elias, who clearly already heard this part, gives me a grim, resigned smile. The girl seems intelligent and serious. Maybe it won’t hurt to let her have a look.
Once I give Elias a small nod, he locates the key to the aviary and we all go inside. Agatha and Julia are tickled by all the cute budgies chirping and fluttering about. Frodo hides which is uncharacteristic for him. Clo joins the fray, but we make sure to let them know he’s not available for adoption. I notice Elias standing in front of where Frodo is hiding. My heart melts a little. I’ll have to mention Frodo isn’t up for adoption either.
“Oh,” Julia says, eyes filled with wonder as the yellow one I took a liking to yesterday lands on her finger. “How pretty. You’re such a pretty baby, aren’t you?”
I want to cry out and tell her to choose another one, but I can’t bring myself to do it. They’ve already fallen in love within three seconds of meeting. The yellow bird preens and fluffs up. Julia gushes about how precious the little budgie is.
“I think we found her baby,” Agatha says with a chuckle. “What a sweetheart.”
I swallow down the emotion clawing its way up my throat and nod. “Very sweet. Do you ladies have a cage?”
Elias steps forward. “I can help with that.”
He disappears from the aviary while I chat with Agatha and Julia. The more I speak to them, the more I relax.
