Page 14 of State of Grace

“It felt good to say.”

“It felt good to hear.”

“And Mom?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m excited about meeting your friends.”

They walked farther down the path without another word as Holly picked up a stick and trotted over to them with it. Isla pried it from her mouth, unclipped her from her leash, and sent the stick flying through the air. In a flurry, Holly took off after it and brought it back to them. For a few minutes, the game went on as Blake enjoyed a simple Saturday morning with her mom on the farm. Blake had made the right decision to come to Moonflower Cove.

Chapter 6

A sliver of light came in through the slit in the aqua blackout curtains that Alexis had installed in her bedroom. They’d been one of the most significant investments she’d ever made, and the lazy days when she could lay in bed and enjoy them were the best. Beside her in bed, Harper stirred before moving her body closer to Alexis’s. She yawned, and Alexis knew she was on the verge of waking up, but she soaked in the moment. Alexis was beyond thankful that Harper was such a snuggle bug; she loved their cuddles more than anything.

Turning her body toward Harper ever so slightly so as to not wake her up, Alexis gently ran her hand through Harper’s strawberry blonde hair as her fingers brushed over her cheeks. Her daughter was perfect. Alexis knew that every parent thought that, but she knew, in her case, it was the absolute truth. Harper had saved Alex from herself; she’d made her realize there was a life to be lived outside of the darkness Alexis had lived in before Harper came into her life.

A darkness that Alexis most likely would have succumbed to had it not been for Harper.

“Morning, baby.” Alexis kissed her forehead as Harper blinked her brown eyes open.

“Mornin’, Mommy.” Cuddling closer into Alexis’s embrace, Harper appeared to be falling back asleep before she bolted up onto her knees like a rocket. “Mommy, can we work on my LEGO set today?”

“Umm, absolutely.” Alexis matched her enthusiasm as she wrapped her arms around Harper and pulled her onto her chest. She covered her face and head with kisses and Harper giggled, all the while Alexis begged her brain to forever remember the sweet sound. “Go change out of your pajamas, and we’ll get started.”

“Can we have toast for breakfast?”

“Yeah, but you have to eat it at the kitchen counter.” She playfully patted Harper on the behind. “Mommy is not cleaning out breadcrumbs from the Death Star again.”

As Harper ran across the hall to her bedroom, Alexis pulled herself out of bed and opened the curtains. The morning sun shone right into her bedroom window, making the fact that Alexis felt like a vampire somedays all the more ironic.There were some days when she saw more of the glow of the neon signs at the bar than the warming glow of the sun.

She was blessed to move into the apartment after her mother kicked her out when she told her about Harper. Sophia had used the space for storage but enlisted their contractor friend August to clear it out and make it into a habitable space for Alexis and her new baby. Both she and Harper had grown up in their apartment, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The view outside her windows was stunningly breathtaking. From her bedroom and the living room, she could see the entire town square out one way, and out the other way was the Atlantic Ocean. She’d set up a reading nook in the living room for her and Harper that offered the best view with its large bay window which gave them a bird’s eye view of the town square. Most nights, they curled up on the oversized chair Sophia had purchased for her when she was pregnant with Harper and read books or watched TV or played games until they couldn’t keep their eyes open anymore.

Alexis pulled herself away from the town square view with its budding trees and stepped into her small closet. She discarded the basketball shorts and t-shirt she typically wore to bed and exchanged them for a tie-dyed pair of yoga pants, a matching sports bra, and a Star Wars tee. She quickly ran her hand through her dirty blonde hair to finish her typical Saturday at home look.

Down the hall, Alexis heard the all too familiar sound of LEGOs scattering on the hardwood floor; she took a deep breath and smiled.

“Sorry,” Harper’s voice was soft but held the hint of playfulness. Alexis ran down the hallway to find her daughter innocently standing surrounded by more LEGOs than she wanted to think about that early in the morning. She’d told her numerous times not to open the bags to the LEGO set without her help, but Harper was too strong-headed and stubborn. Like mother, like daughter.

“It’s ok, baby.” Alexis got down on her knees and started to clean up the pieces and put them on the large coffee table she’d bought explicitly because its large size gave them ample space to build LEGOs. Harper had gotten her love of the building sets honestly from Alexis. Still, Alexis’s friend Maddie Carlson had purchased more sets for Harper every few months, to the point that Alexis’s apartment was covered with about as many LEGOs as there were pictures of Harper.

The newest addition to the collection was the Death Star from Star Wars. Not only was it the most extensive set they’d ever worked on, but it was also the most expensive one. Alexis had nearly had a cow when Maddie had shown up to Harper’s birthday party with the massive set a few weeks earlier. She’d tried to get Maddie to at least let her pay for half of it, but Maddie wouldn’t hear any of it. Not for the first time in the last five years, Alexis thanked her lucky stars for her friends.

“Ok,” Alexis ran her hand over the rug once more to check for straggling pieces, “how about you work on sorting these out while I go make breakfast?”

With a nod, Harper kneeled in front of the coffee table and went to work sorting out each piece by shape, size, and color. Alexis never saw more of herself in Harper than in those moments hunched over the coffee table with building bricks in small piles that were perfectly organized.

“Shit.” Mumbling under her breath, Alexis frantically opened and closed cabinets all over the kitchen for the bread she knew she’d purchased when she was at the store earlier in the week. When the search came up empty, she put a hand on her hip and turned to Harper. “Harp, did Nonna make you a grilled cheese last night?”

“Yup.”

“Figures,” she mumbled as she took her bag off the peg by the door and slipped on her favorite pair of Chaco sandals. “Ok, Little Miss, change of plans. Let’s go run down to the store and get some bread.”

“Mommy, no,” Harper whined as she looked at Alexis with her sad, puppy dog eyes. “I wanna build my LEGOs, not go to the store.”

“Well, let me see if Nonna or Emily are up to watching you for a few minutes.” Walking across the small foyer, Alexis slowly opened the door to the other apartment. Emily was on the couch drinking coffee as a Disney movie played softly on the large TV. She turned toward Alexis with a smile.

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