He smiled, but his voice was serious. “Leelee, listen to me. A good, strong, honest man. You find him, and you marry him. I want to know you’ve got somebody to come home to, so when I’m dead and gone, I know you’ll be taken care of.”
She pulled free of his arms and shook her head vehemently. “Why would you say that? You’re healthy as a horse.”
He shook his head. “I’m not guaranteed tomorrow, and I want to know you won’t be alone.”
“I can take care of myself, you know.” She tried to focus on the insinuation of her helplessness instead of the dead and gone statement. She refused to even consider a world without Pawpaw. And besides, she was an independent woman. While a romance would be wonderful, she didn’t need it to survive.
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“I’m not talking about money or protection or
anything like that, and you know it, girl.” He stared her down. “I mean a partner like I had with your grandma, someone to share life’s burdens with. You haven’t had it easy, and with Jamie gettin’ married, you’ll be more alone than is good for you.”
Leah stared at the carpet. She couldn’t look Pawpaw in the face. While the rest of the world saw the laughing, adventurous woman she’d chosen to be, she knew that he saw the lonely child she’d been when he and her grandmother had taken her in. He knew her too well.
How could any man hope to do a better job of taking care of her than the man who’d raised her when her own mother hadn’t cared enough to do the job herself?
Her grandfather sighed. “If you’re going to stay around here this afternoon, you’d better change outta that getup. I could use some of your help staging the new silver I just bought. You’ve always been better at that than me.”
He patted her on the back and nodded toward the office at the back of the store.
“Yes, sir.” She caught the hood that he tossed at her and made her way through the back room. Maybe an afternoon of manual labor would keep the ugly memories of Kevin and her worries about the future at bay. Her throat tightened at the thought of Pawpaw’s words. Why would he be so worried about her getting married? What had he meant, dead and gone?
It took most of the afternoon before she could breathe normally again.
i
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Gina Lamm
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Leah stoically stared at Jamie’s TV, determined to ignore the pitiful whining of one claiming-to- be-starved greyhound. He’d had a bowl and a half of food only an hour ago, the rotten liar. He pawed at the foot she’d propped on the coffee table, his high-pitched cries fighting with the TV for her attention.
She’d volunteered to house and dog sit for the happy honeymooners, but Baron seemed determined to pester her to death. Instead of teaching a week at summer theatre camp, she was moping around Jamie’s house with a pile of movies, a boatload of snack food, and a greyhound that refused to get full.
“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are what they were last April, please tell me so at once.
My affections and wishes are unchanged.” Mr. Darcy’s eyes melted Leah from the TV screen, that beautiful deep voice rumbling through her bruised heart. “But one word from you will silence me on this subject forever.”
Leah mouthed the reply with Elizabeth Bennet. “I am ashamed to remember what I said then. My feelings are so different. In fact, they are quite the opposite.”
Baron whined again and pawed at Leah’s hand, shaking the tortilla chip free. He snatched up the forbidden snack and trotted happily to his bed beside a large mirrored bureau. Crumpling the chip bag closed, Leah tossed it on the side table atop her MacBook and lost herself in her favorite movie for a few more minutes.
She sniffed and wiped away her tears at the sight of Mr. Darcy kissing his new bride as they rode away on the carriage. Why wasn’t life really like that? Modern guys— well, the ones she’d dated anyway—
wouldn’t
know chivalry if it bit them in the ass.
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The power button clicked beneath her finger and
the TV went silent. Baron yawned and stretched, then trotted toward the kitchen, leaving Leah alone with nothing but her contemplation and half a bag of chips. A warm tugging began in her chest, a feeling she couldn’t place at all. She glanced over at the bureau.
Jamie had traveled through that mirror. It was some kind of time portal, Leah knew. It stood silently— tall, gleaming, with an almost otherworldly allure. Her Converse hit the floor with a soft thump, and before she knew what was happening, she stepped toward the antique bureau.