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Alice

“What do you want? Waffles, French toast…” I walk Linnie down the massive staircase toward the kitchen,in the closet as I threw on my clothes and answered his bedroom door

He’s going to come down the back stairs while I have her in the kitchen and pretend he’s just arrived ho how close ere to doing the deed and then the hammer came down

I wonder if it’s for the best If I just got lost in this opulent world, seeing how it could be to live this way and sprinkle that fairytale dreaet out of hand

“I’ll just have coffee,” she says, dead stop, and I stand at the bottom of the stairs and look down at her wise, wide eyes

“Coffee?”

“Yes, Alice Coffee Black”

I lead us toward the kitchen while I think of how to respond, the taste ofin my mouth from Roan’s kiss

I flip on the overhead lights in the kitchen and then lift Linnie up onto a stool at the massive marble-covered island

“Are you sure you’re allowed to have coffee?”

She opens her mouth to answer, but Roan’s voice answers for her

“She is not allowed to have coffee” He giveshalf-smile as he steps into the kitchen from the back hallway He’s even put on his suit jacket and overcoat, looking like he’s just come in from outside

“Uncle Roan!” Linnie’s eyes light up before she does a quick turn about and starts using sign language again

Roan gives her a patient but exasperated look “Linnie, you know I don’t understand you when you sign”

“She said, you’re not supposed to be back until later and it’s five AM, everyone drinks coffee at five AM” I raisemy hand down her soft hair “She has a point”

Roan shakes his head and takes off his coat, tossing it over the back of a chair that flanks a long, rugged farmhouse table, surrounded by twelve hand-carved chairs “Well, I have a little soht make up for the lack of coffee”

He reaches back into his coat pocket and when he brings his hand back out there’s a charold, and there are three charms already attached: a bird; a heart with a keyhole and a book; each with a precious geine how much it must have cost, and can’t help the way my mind jumps to the difference that kind of money would have ht up I know she wouldn’t have been any less pleased with plastic At four years old, she doesn’t care, but the love I see in Roan’s face can’t be denied