“My mother lived a long, satisfying life, full of gratitude and wonder about the world. She traveled. She read whatever she wished. She swam in the ocean. So when it was her time, she hadno regrets. And when that’s the case, losing them is easier. With Nate, well, that wasn’t the case, obviously.”
“That makes sense.” She gestured toward my profile. “What’s that song? I never heard it before.”
“You want to hear it?”
She nodded.
“Let me get some headphones from the office,” I said. “You keep an eye on the customers.”
“Really?”
“You got this, kid.”
I quickly gathered my phone and headphones. To my delight, Annie was helping someone pick out a book for their teen daughter by the time I returned. After the customer had their book, I rang them up, teaching Annie how to use the system. “Next customer’s all yours,” I said as the woman headed toward the door.
“Yay.”
“Okay, ready to listen?” I pulled up the song and handed her my noise cancelling headphones. She put them on and I hit play.
Watching her listen to it for the first time was one of the most extraordinary things I’d ever seen in my life. At first she went very still. Then she sank into the chair behind the desk, closing her eyes, tapping her foot to the beat. At one point, her hand moved to her chest, hovering above her heart. A lone tear traveled down her cheek.
She tore the headphones off, staring at me. “That’s the most beautiful song I’ve heard.”
I smiled. “I think so too.”
“It’s got so many layers to it,” she said.
“Agree. The more I listen to the lyrics, the more I discover.”
“Like a good book. Or poem.”
“Right. I’m really glad you enjoyed it.”
“I think I might put it on repeat later,” Annie said.
I was about to tell her to listen to all the many recorded versions, written by Stephin Merritt, but, before I could, the door swung open and Ms. Delphine Delacroix herself appeared. She was dressed in a beige suit, her hair loose about her shoulders. The woman made me wish I was a painter with the talent to capture her beauty. I’d do nothing but paint her again and again.
Delphine stopped short upon seeing her daughter standing there with me.
“Annie, what are you doing here? I thought you were with Gillian and Grace for breakfast.”
“I was, but we finished early. Leo was fussy so Gillian wanted to get him home. He’s teething. I thought I’d buy a book on the way home, and I saw the help wanted sign in the window, and guess what? Dorian’s giving me a job.”
Her expression was a study in contrasts. On one hand I could see she was pleased for her daughter. On the other, she looked wary. Regardless, she politely said, “That’s great. As long as it doesn’t interfere with soccer.”
“It won’t,” Annie said quickly.
To me, she said, “Annie’s wanted a summer job but couldn’t find anything.”
“I need the help,” I said. “The high school kid I hired for the summer has proven unreliable.”
“How convenient for all of us,” Delphine said, a slight smile turning up the corners of her pretty mouth. “Half of success in life is just showing up.”
“Probably more than half,” I said.
We locked gazes for a split second, and I tumbled head first into a dreamlike trance. I had a brief image of the two of us dancing. No idea where that had come from. I blinked away the image and looked down at my shoes instead. Not nearly as pretty as Delphine’s hazel eyes.
Poe, who had been asleep in the display window since dismissing Annie, appeared without warning on the front desk between Delphine and me. He’d made no sound getting there, as if he’d simply materialized. He sat directly in front of her and stared up at her face with an expression I’d never seen him direct at another living creature. Like he loved her.
