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“Your spirit and fearlessness are so much like your mother,” Bess answered. “And your thoughtful, passionate side is so much like your father.”
Aria rested her hand on the pocket containing the piano eraser. “Sometimes, I forget what it was like to have a mom and a dad. But now I’m like my friend Phoebe. Phoebe and I are the only two kids in my class who don’t have a mom or a dad. We have an uncle and an aunt. Well, she’s got an uncle and an almost-aunt. Phoebe says her almost-aunt is real nice, but she can’t reach stuff on shelves and clogs the sink in her bathroom a lot. I told her my aunt has lots and lots of recordings of herself singing and playing the piano, and she also keeps boxes and boxes of Uncle Landy’s picture.”
Harper blushed and shook her head.
“Aunts and almost-aunts are kind of weird but really awesome,” the kid mused.
He chuckled, but a lump formed in his throat. He understood Aria’s feelings. His life with his mother, father, and then his grandmother seemed like a distant memory after he and Leighton entered their first foster placement.
He needed to do more to keep his sister and Trey’s memory alive for the girl.
His own grief had held him back.
It was time to do better.
He glanced at Harper—at the sassy, snark-wielding woman he’d married on a double-dog dare.
She brushed a tear from her cheek, and Aria took notice.
“Are you crying again, Aunt Harper?”
“No, I’m not crying. This isn’t crying,” the weepy woman replied through a sniffle.
“It looks like crying,” Aria commented, scrunching up her face. “You’ve been crying a bunch lately. You cried at my school, and then cried during Lolo and Lala’s second wedding, and then I think I heard you cry last night.”
Harper cocked her head to the side. “Last night?”
“I went to get a glass of water real, real late, and you were making this noise.” Aria threw her head back. “‘Ooh, ahh, ohhh!’ You were bawling up a storm.”
Ooh, ahh, and holy bawling shit!
Harper’s cheeks went from a dusty pink to deep scarlet.
How the hell were they supposed to respond to that?
“I think you were dreaming about horses and talking in your sleep, too,” Aria mused. “You said I want to ride you all night long, and you sounded like you were running a race and couldn’t catch your breath. Did you dream that you were running a race against a horse?”
Harper turned to him. Her mouth opened and closed like a befuddled flounder while her eyes screamedhelp me.
“That’s exactly what she was dreaming about,” he supplied, throwing his wife a lifeline. “You mentioned it to me this morning.”
“Yep, I was dreaming about horses,” Harper rattled off. “Aria Paige-Grant, you’re one smart kid with impeccable hearing. You should play your song or I might start crying again. We can’t wait for another second to hear her song, can we?”
She could have suggested they walk barefoot across hot coals, and he would have kicked off his shoes. He was up for anything that steered the conversation away from their sex life.
“Go for it, kid. Let’s hear that song and never talk about your aunt Harper’s dreams again,” he added and walked his niece to the piano bench while Harper lifted the lid protecting the keys.
Aria shot him a perplexed look before eyeing her grandparents. “Lolo, Lala?”
“Yes,amor?” Tomás answered.
“Is something wrong with my aunt and uncle?”
“On the contrary, dear,” Bess answered, gifting him and Harper with a knowing grin. “There appears to be something extraordinarily right with them.”
“Adults are weird,” Aria huffed, but her comical agitation dissolved when she scooted forward on the bench and concentrated on the keys.
It was as if time stopped, or maybe he’d gone back in time.
