In truth, I’d forgotten about the antique trunk Elana had left me. Maybe not so much as forgot, but purposefully put it out of my brain because I wasn’t ready to see what she’d put inside for me.
“I haven’t even opened the box,” I said with a small shrug.
She stared at me with disbelief.
“So, this is out of some sense of guilt?” she demanded.
“Not guilt. Not even obligation. Just a sense that this is what should happen.” I looked down into her eyes the color of the sun as it fell over the lake, and I knew she could feel it too?I belonged there.
Tristan
LET IT BE
“And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”
Performed by The Beatles
Written by Lennon / McCartney
My heart was ramming itself againstmy rib cage like a baby bird trying to escape the nest for the first time. Seeing Brady on the bench next to Hannah while she played “Let It Be” had hit me with love and sadness, and joy and trepidation all at once. Hannah’s sweet singing brought Grams’ voice back to me as if she had been there in the room. Her energy vibrated around us, and I could almost hear her correcting Hannah’s mistakes while she encouraged my daughter’s love of classic rock.
The loss was almost unbearable.
But mixed in with the pain was a tender amazement at the blond man sitting next to Hannah. He’d not only taken the time to teach Sheldon but was now bringing music back to my daughter’s world after it had been silent for weeks.
It was my fault. I hadn’t pushed her. I hadn’t asked her once if she wanted to play because I knew, selfishly, that it would hurt. It would hurt us both, and I didn’t know how to fix it. I didn’t know how to heal the wound inside my daughter when I couldn’t heal my own. So, I hadn’t asked her to play. And now, all I could do was stand there, watching, listening, crying… Tears for my grandmother. Tears for Hannah. Tears for myself.
Now, Brady was offering to take Grams’ place temporarily.
And I couldn’t allow him to do that.
No way.
For so many reasons, the smallest of them being his wicked smile that made my stomach melt.
I also wouldn’t let Grams guilt him into it from the grave.
I shook my head at his offer to teach the lessons, just as Hannah turned to me with a glorious smile on her face that hadn’t been there in days and said, “Mom, I think Grams would like Brady teaching me to play, don’t you?”
Shit. Honesty from the mouths of babes.
Brady grinned that exact wicked smile I’d just been thinking about, and it not only melted my stomach, it sent swirls of need and longing through my chest and down to my nether regions. I wanted to hate it. I wanted to hate him for making me feel things I’d sworn I’d never feel again.
Staring at both their beautiful smiles, I gave up. I couldn’t resist when there was an immense sense of happiness beaming from them stronger than the rays of the sun. Burning me with the intensity of their hope.
“I’ll give you Grams’ schedule, but I don’t expect you to be able to do them all. We can work out some modified version,” I said quietly, and his grin got even bigger, stretching so it caused his eyes to crinkle at the corners, the brown pupils sparkling with happiness. Complete, one-hundred-percent, wickedness.
Brady turned back to Hannah. “You haven’t finished twenty-five. Can you even count to twenty-five?”
My daughter gave him the biggest eye-roll in the world.
“Duh. I can count to one hundred and twenty-five.”
“Should I make you do it a hundred times then?” he asked with a casual tease.
“Please don’t, we’ll never get out of here for dinner, and I need fuel before I show up at the city council meeting tonight,” I said with a smile. A genuine smile which caused his eyes to drop to my lips, lingering there before traveling back to meet my gaze.
