Page 112 of Born to Make You Smile

“Is there anything we can do to help?” she asked.

I wish.

“Be patient. Sometimes adults love each other and want to be together more than anything, but so many things keep them apart.”

“Even if they’re meant to be?”

An amused smile tickled my lips. “You think we’re meant to be?”

“Yeah.” She propped her head in her hand. “The way you guys talk and laugh. How you look at each other. You two are definitely meant to be.”

I rubbed her arm. “I hope you’re right. Does your sister know about me and your dad? That we were together?”

“No way. She’s in her own little world.”

I loved that about Mackenzie.

The sound of cheering made Charlotte and me glance up. Mackenzie made her way to us, jumping up and down with the small plush penguin in her hand.

“She did it,” Charlotte said with disbelief. “She really did it.”

Mackenzie slid into the booth, holding the penguin proudly. “Look, guys!”

“I knew you could do it!” Charlotte cheered, and I winked at her with a smile.

Our crepes arrived just in time, and we dug in. After dessert, we played games. Air hockey and Whac-A-Mole. A motorcycle racing game, which I actually won. Then the three of us took silly pictures in the photo booth. The evening went by fast. Soon, our special time together ended, and I returned them home.

***

Joshua came to my house that Sunday to help me pack. Besides his collar, he was without his pup gear in jeans and a black T-shirt. He brought colored masking tape and Sharpies to label boxes. He also brought one of his smaller professional cameras to take photos.

He had the ability to be objective about random keepsakes. As difficult as it was, I knew I had to let a lot of my mom’s things go.

We tackled the dining room and the kitchen. We went through drawers with random receipts, a pack of cards missing an ace of spades and ten of hearts, expired creams and medication. Old cords that served no purpose.

“Do you really need these?” he kept asking me, and before I could answer, it was usually tossed. “What about this random jar of pink turnips?”

My eyes widened. I looked over at Joshua as he held them up in the pantry. I’d forgotten I still had that jar. A weight dropped in my chest when I thought back to that day grocery shopping with Gavin. How our relationship was before. How much I missed us. Not only our relationship but our friendship. Losing him as a friend had really been the most difficult part of all of this. “Um. Actually. Can we keep those? I know it seems weird, but it’s special.”

“Grace. Really?”

“Just…” I inhaled a breath. “Trust me.”

“Okay, Goldie. You can keep your precious turnips. Eww.”

I chuckled.

We had a good momentum going until we got to my mother’s precious collectibles. My anxiety spiked, and I started to pace.

“Out of everything here, which items mean the most to you?” he asked.

I sighed. “All of them.”

“What about her absolute favorite piece, or maybe the one that reminds you of a memory of the two of you?”

How was I going to do this? Mom had so many favorites.

“These pieces remind me of the traveling we did together,” I said, my brow lowered. “Our cherished trips to Austria and France.”

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