Page 56 of My Scorned Best Friend

“Give me a minute,” I say to Clara, who nods and takes the dish from my hands.

I follow Jed up the stairs. I completely forgot that when I was in town before, I’d wanted to talk to Emelia.

Jed’s knocking on Posey’s old bedroom door when I approach. He shakes his head. “My little girl went from a sweetie pie to Firestarter.”

“Do you mind if I talk to her?”

His eyebrows rise. “Really?”

“Why do you say it like that?”

“Because you’ve never shown much interest in the kids.”

I draw back, offended. That stings. “They’re my nieces and nephews. I’m just not around a lot.”

“Okay.” He smacks me on the back. “Good luck.”

Once Jed is downstairs, I knock. “Hey, Emelia, it’s Uncle Xavier. Can I come in?”

There’s no answer, so I twist the knob and find it locked. Jed never really lived in this house except for a short stint before college, but the younger Greenes were famous for locking each other out. I reach up above the door where the key is always kept, and the lock pops easily when I place the key in the hole and turn.

I open the door slowly and find Emelia lying on the bed with her head shoved face-first into a pillow.

“Hi, Emelia.”

“Go away!” she yells and kicks her feet on the mattress.

“Babies suck, right?” I sit on the edge of the bed.

She peeks up but shoves her head back into the pillow right away.

“Did you know that my mom died too?”

“She did?”

I nod even though she’s not looking at me. “Me, Uncle Cade, Uncle Fisher, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Chevelle… Grandpa is our dad, but your grandma isn’t our mom.”

She turns to suss me out, then sits up on the bed with the pillow in her hands. “Is that why you call her Marla?”

I nod again. I didn’t figure anyone would have told her any of this yet. She’s probably too young to really understand.

“I was thirteen when Grandpa started dating Grandma, and sixteen when Grandma was pregnant with Rylan. And I don’t think of Rylan as anything but my brother. How do you feel about the baby in Molly’s belly?”

She shrugs, hugging the pillow.

“Are you a little excited?”

“I heard they cry and go to the bathroom a lot. Like Axel and Laurie.”

“Yeah, they do. When our two families merged together, I didn’t always make it easy for my dad. But that was because I really missed my mom. I thought that maybe one day, I’d just forget her and Grandma would be my mom. But you know what?”

“What?”

“Grandma kept my mom alive for us. She’d let us have these days where we celebrated my mom’s life. We’d remember all the good things about her. Your grandma never tried to take my mom’s spot.”

“Molly’s my mom now,” she says.

I nod. “She’s great, right?”

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