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matching apron was trimmed with purple eyelet.
    “Ohhhhh!” Emma said. “Pretty!”
    Lanie squatted down to child level. “Do you think so? Do you know who I think is pretty?” She ran her hand over Emma’s hair because it was impossible not to touch her. “You!” Lanie lightly tickled Emma’s round little tummy and musical laughter sweetened the air.
    Luke stepped to Emma’s side and she threw her arms around his leg and pressed her face to his thigh. “My daddy’s the same as me.”
    “I’m afraid she’s been told one too many times how much she looks like me,” Luke said and dimples appeared in his cheeks.
    Lanie had never noticed the dimples before — probably because this was the first time she’d seen him smile.
    Emma looked up at Luke and stroked Lanie’s apron. “I need the same as this for me!”
    Luke frowned. “Uh, I don’t know, honeybee. I don’t know where we’d get that. But if we see one that fits you, I suppose so.”
    “Yea!” Emma said. This child had not been denied much, maybe nothing, except a mother.
    “Come in.” Lanie held the door open.
    “We don’t want to interrupt you,” Luke said, taking Emma’s hand. “I need to park out front tonight.” Ah, yes. The moving truck was in his space out back. Lucy had called to say she would be over the next morning to supervise the people who were coming to unload it. “We’ll just go upstairs and get out of your way.”
    Impulsively, Lanie said, “Would you like some coffee? I haven’t cleaned the machine yet.” A cup of coffee and Luke Avery was a small price to pay for a little more Emma magic.
    Luke paused and nodded. “That would be great. I’m exhausted from all this moving.”
    What?
“I totally understand.” If any of the sarcasm she felt crept into her voice, Luke didn’t seem to notice.
    Emma catapulted into the shop, raised her hands, and spun around! “Candy Land!” She ran across the game board floor from the case of artisan chocolates, to the rack of lollipops, and past the shelves with baskets of bagged toffee, taffy, and peanut brittle.
    “Emma, no running,” Luke said.
    She stopped in front on Lanie. “Are you the
queen
of Candy Land?”
    Luke laughed, shaking his head from side to side. Lanie wouldn’t have guessed there was any laughter inside him. He raised his eyebrow and said to Lanie, “She’s remarkably unimpressed with the princess mystique. She’s much more intrigued with the idea of being queen. She thinks every place she goes has a queen — play school, the grocery store, the dry cleaners.”
    Lanie laid her hand on Emma’s cheek. “I guess I am, but you can call me Lanie.”
    Emma ran to the case of chocolates and pointed, her wide eyes turned toward Lanie. “Can I have one?”
    Lanie looked to Luke for permission as she moved toward the case. She would have given this child anything she owned or could steal.
    Luke barely nodded his head. “Yes, this time. But, Emma, you must not ask Ms. Heaven for things.”
    Emma stopped all movement and a little frown appeared between her eyes, as if she was trying to process some thought.
    “Heaven?” Emma whispered, looking around the shop and back to Lanie. “Are you my mommy?”
    Oh, dear God. Time stopped but Lanie forced her mind to work. There was no time to languish in shock. Emma stood waiting for an answer but there was only silence in the room. Luke’s face was white and stony; his lips parted as if he intended to say something but there were no words. Evidently, he hadn’t gotten the memo about no languishing.
    Lanie knelt down and met Emma’s eyes. “No, I’m not your mommy. My last name is Heaven, like your last name is Avery — ”
    “Emmaline Avery!” Emma said with pride.
    “No kidding? That’s a great name. My whole name is Elaine Clarice Heaven. So the Heaven that is my name is very different from the heaven where your mommy sits and watches over you.” Lanie prayed she’d said the right thing. A glance at