“I suppose this is what Henry meant when he said you had something for me? This little surprise?” Connor said to Elle about the baby.
“Well, she was a surprise, but not the one I meant Henry to mention to you. But first, are you going to introduce me to your lovely friend? Or will you make me do that myself?”
Emma said, “You can see me? But I thought—” She sent a confused look at Connor, who nodded at her. Reaching out a hand to Elspeth before remembering her own limitations, she said, “I’m Emma.”
“She’s…in-betweener,” Connor explained with a look brimming with subtext.
“Yes,” Elspeth said with a smile. “Very nice to meet you, Emma.”
“Same. It’s…so beautiful here. And she’s adorable, little Anika.”
“Thanks. And we do love it here. That’s Sam out on the boat and our daughter, Molly. Now that Sam has finished building that thing, you can’t keep them out of it. But I’m kind of glad I stayed ashore today. I had a feeling I might see you soon.”
“Did ye, now?”
“Come, sit down. We have a lot to discuss.”
They sat in the Adirondack chairs positioned around a fire pit. It was too warm for a fire, but the fragrance drifting from the cold ashes in the pit reminded Emma of campfires as a child with s’mores and roasted hot dogs. All such simple human pleasures. She wondered if she’d ever have them again.
And babies.
Gazing at Anika, who had started to fuss, it struck her that even a fallen angel could have a baby. Yet that blessing had also eluded Emma herself in this life. Maybe now it was truly too late.
Elle found a pacifier and pressed it against the baby’s perfect, heart-shaped mouth. Anika stopped fussing and settled back to sleep.
“I hear big things are about to happen for you, Connor, At least, that’s the rumor.”
“Y’are surprisingly well informed for a reformed Celestial.”
“I do have my connections,” she replied with a grin. “Henry, for one. He always keeps a finger on the pulse of things.”
“More like an ear to the ground. But aye, it seems I’m going t’ make the Council after all. After I’m finished here.”
He said, as if I’m not sitting right beside him.Emma sank down a little in her chair.
“Congratulations to you!” Elspeth squeezed his hand. “That’s wonderful. It’s what you’ve always wanted. Right?”
He flicked an unreadable look at Emma. “Aye. It is.”
Emma kept quiet, but her head spun with questions she knew she had no business asking. When exactly would he be finished here? When she, what, gave up the ghost? Bit the bullet? Kicked the bucket? Or when she returned to her real life and left this incomprehensible substitute for a life behind?
“So, you’ve come because Henry sent you? Or for some other reason?” Elle asked, rubbing her baby’s back, a motion that seemed as natural to her as breathing.
“Your news first,” Connor said.
She shifted the sleeping baby to her other shoulder. “Okay, but…” She glanced at Emma questioningly.
“’Tis all right,” he assured her. “Say what you will.”
From her diaper bag, she pulled a book—small tome that looked quite old. “I’ve kept it with me, hoping I’d see you one day soon.” She handed it to him. “You know Iris.”
He nodded.
“Her life here for the last forty years was as a librarian. Anything you wanted to find, she could find it. Out of curiosity one day, I asked her to go looking for you.”
“Me?” A frown pulled at Connor’s brow.
“Well, your history. I’m a little nosy that way.”
