Page 29 of State of Grace

Alexis laughed, knowing there were plenty of rocks, leaves, and sticks in her bags, house, and car from Harper. “Harper loves to collect things when we go for walks. Rocks, leaves, lizards.” Alexis smiled at the sweet soul her daughter had. She’d present a rock she’d found as if it were the most precious thing in the entire world.

“Lizards?”

“Yup.”

“She ever brought them home?”

“All the time.”

“Do you let her keep them?”

“Gosh, no.” She shook her head as she laughed. “Well, except for Carl.”

“Carl?”

“The lizard that she found one day at the park and put in Sophia’s Birkin bag for safe keeping. Although Little Miss denies she did that.” They shared a laugh. “It was all fine until later that night when I heard a blood-curdling scream coming from Sophia’s apartment.”

“Oh no!”

“Yep. But Harper can talk anyone into anything, so instead of killing him, Carl now lives in a tank nicer than my house at my friend Maddie’s apartment.”

“I love that.”

“Me too.” They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, and when Blake didn’t make any attempt to get out of the car, Alexis turned and leaned her head back on the headrest as she decided to see if Blake would open up to her about Isla. “So, how’d you find her?”

Blake let out a huff of air in annoyance, shaking her head as her eyes averted away.

“So, my show gets canceled, and then my dad dies, right? And I have to move out of our condo cause the studio was paying for it, and I find this old chest that I had when I was little. It was full of letters from Isla and Vera and my baby blanket that she’d made me when I was little. I thought I’d lost it, but he always knew where it was.”

“Do you think...” she shook her head. “No, never mind.”

“Oh, come on.” Blake playfully shoved her shoulder. “You can’t do that.”

“Do you think he meant for you to find them? The letters, I mean.”

“I don’t think so.” Blake shook her head. “My father’s not one to play kind games like that. I think he legit forgot the chest was there. The last letter was dated a couple of years ago, so he hadn’t put any more in there recently.” She leaned her head back on the headrest and looked over at Alexis. “Even on his death bed as he was trying to tell me everything he wanted me to know, he never once mentioned anything about the chest or even my mom or Mason. It’s weird, thinking back on that now, you know? He should have apologized for what he did.”

“Sometimes, we don’t get apologies from the people that hurt us.”

The silence filled the air between them, but nothing felt awkward or uncomfortable.

Alexis knew better than anyone that relationships with parents weren’t always easy. Her relationship with her mother had been strained since before Alexis was born. Morning sickness, bed rest, and a preterm delivery had all led to Moira Holland’s postpartum depression. Coupled with the fact Jenna thought her child-rearing days were over thanks to the large age gap between her and her siblings. There was a wedge between them before Alexis was ever born, and Moira blamed Alexis for her depression. Moira had almost seemed relieved when she kicked Alexis out of the house when she found out she was pregnant.

Of course, there was more water under that bridge than Alexis was ever prepared to tread. Instead, they’d both accepted the way their relationship was and never worked to change it. Harper barely knew her biological grandparent, but she had more than enough surrogate grandmothers to love on her, which was more than enough for them.

On the car’s touchscreen, a text message notification popped up from Sophia. Alexis picked up the phone and unlocked it to read the message.

The stalker app shows you’re sitting in the car in Isla’s driveway. Hope the windows don’t get foggy…

Alexis rolled her eyes and tossed the phone back onto the console.

“I should go so you can get home.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and put her hand on the handle. “I’m sure you want to be home after a long day of work and not stuck here awkwardly with me.”

“It’s ok,” the words left her mouth quicker than Alexis had intended, and Blake raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean, I’m here if you need to talk or anything. I know all of this,” she motioned toward the farmhouse where the porch light had recently come on, “can be a lot, and I’m not sure you have anyone you can talk to about it.”

“Gee, thanks for assuming I have no friends,” Blake teased.

“You know what I mean.”

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