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“I’m a badass like that.” She paused. It was one thing to dish out naughty language. It was another ball game to encourage a life of crime. “But you should never steal, like ever. Stealing is bad and super wrong.”
Woohoo! She was already aunt-ing like a pro.
Aria sized her up. “But you said you stole these.”
“It was more like borrowing.”
“You can’t borrow food, Harper…the Nanny Aunt.” The kid balked like she would have preferred to call her Harper, the Interloper.
“Fine, I stole them, but they’re billing your uncle for it. So, it’s only kind of stolen chocolate. Try one,” she nudged.
Aria picked up a bonbon. “Are Lolo, Uncle Landy, and Lala looking for me?”
“They are,” she answered, returning to the keys to riff on her “Sweet, So, Sweet” melody.
Aria popped the chocolate into her mouth. “These are butterscotch.”
“Butterscotch, milk chocolate, and a little sea salt. Pretty good, huh?” she answered as the child ate another.
“Mom and Dad’s favorite bonbon flavor was butterscotch.”
“They were my grandpa’s favorite, too.”
“Were?” Aria asked.
“Yeah, he died.”
She picked up another bonbon, then returned it to the tray. “My mom and dad died.”
She had her talking.
“My parents died when I was five,” she answered, surprised at how easy it was to speak the words that usually made her spitting mad. “I live with my grandma,” she added.
The child retrieved the chocolate and popped it into her mouth. “But you’re old,” she said through the bite.
Oh, hell no!
She stopped playing. “I’m not that old. I’m twenty-six.”
Aria wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “When I’m twenty-six, I’m going to live in a hot air balloon. I’ll go wherever I want, whenever I want. And nobody will be able to stop me.”
“That’s a pretty kick-ass plan.”
“It’s better than living in your grandma’s house,” the child muttered.
“You live in your grandparents’ house,” she quipped, then stuffed a bonbon in her mouth.
“Not anymore. I have to live with Uncle Landy.”
She returned to the keys. “He’s not so bad.” She changed the melody from a jaunty major key to a darker minor key.
It was time for a song.
“Uncle Landy doesn’t have candy, so he eats all the worms, eats all the worms,” she sang, making up a little tune.
Aria pressed her lips together and suppressed a grin.
“Are you going to watch me, or are you going to try to keep up with me?” she challenged.
