He stepped forward and slowly laid something on the counter. Like he was playing a card.
It looked like a scrap of paper. A dollar bill? Acouponfor a bouquet? Good Lord, wasn’t he making good money by now?
She peered closer.
All the little hairs stood up on the back of her neck.
It was a faded Polaroid.
Of Annelise.
Her baby. Eden’s lungs seized up. All skinny colty legs and long shining hair to her waist, standing in front of what looked like a suburban house, her eyes squinted closed, smiling that adorable gap-toothed smile.
“Where the hell did you get this picture of Annel...”
And then she stopped.
Because she somehow understood before he even confirmed it aloud.
“It’s a photo of my mom when she was eleven,” Jasper said.
It was like a trapdoor had opened beneath her feet. Eden pressed her fingers against the counter to steady herself against a swoop of vertigo.
She didn’t look up.
She couldn’t yet.
The longer she looked down the longer she could pretend he wasn’t standing here in her shop.
Her breathing was rough in her own ears now, though.
“I met Annelise at the Misty Cat during sound check. She’s a sweetheart. Told me she could play guitar, too. She actually told me a lot of things.” He smiled faintly. A little nervously.
He was nervous.
“Yeah. She takes lessons,” she said faintly. “And she’s... she’s a gregarious kid.”
“She’s a charmer. She told me she was ten years old. She showed me her new favorite chord. It’s—”
“A minor.”
She and Jasper said it at the same time.
There was a little silence.
He breathed in. Exhaled at a steady length. He was gathering courage for something.
“She told me she used a lot of A minor to write a song called ‘Invisible Dad,’” he added.
Fuck fuck fuck triple fuck.
“She said she doesn’t know who her dad is, but he had to leave town for an appointment. She says she’s pretty sure he has big shoulders.”
Bless Leesy’s friendly, talkative little heart and her dreams of a certain kind of dad.
Eden had nothing to say to this. All she could think of was Gabe, and his shoulders, and his warm eyes, receding like a dream. Like he was standing on the opposite shore and she hit a sandbar just as she was about to walk off the boat into his arms.
“She has one of these, too.” Jasper pointed to the dent in his chin.