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Luke told her nothing. His expression hadn’t changed.
    Emma considered this for a moment and smiled a flirtatious little grin. “I like you.”
    “I like you too,” Lanie answered, grateful that the moment had passed. Thoughts were fleeting in the three-year-old mind. “So, how about that candy? Which one do you like?” Lanie stepped behind the counter as Emma studied the contents of the case.
    Luke moved behind Emma and put his hands on her shoulders. Some of the color had returned to his face.
    “That one!” Emma pointed to a chocolate truffle decorated with a tiny marzipan ladybug. “It’s the same as me!” She pointed to the ladybugs on her overalls.
    “Yes, it is,” Lanie agreed. “You are very smart.” She said to Luke, “Should I put it in a box or are you going to let her have it now?”
    “Let her have it. What’s a piece of candy before dinner in the scheme of things?”
    Lanie put the candy in a small pink paper cup and stepped around the counter. “For you, Miss Emma, to celebrate the day you and I became friends. That’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it?”
    “Yea!” Emma took the candy and began to skip around the colored squares on the floor.
    Lanie made cups of coffee for herself and Luke.
    “Thank you, Lanie,” he said quietly as he sat on one of the counter stools and reached for the mug she offered.
    “You’re welcome. Consider it a welcome to the neighborhood gift.”
    “I appreciate the coffee but that wasn’t what I was thanking you for. You seemed to key into her thought process immediately. I don’t know if I would have ever made the connection.”
    “I hope what I said was okay.”
    Luke nodded but he didn’t look sure. “Emma doesn’t remember Carrie. She was only eighteen months old when it happened. The concept of a mother wasn’t real to her until she started nursery school last month.” He cast a worried glace toward Emma, who was eating her candy and making faces at her reflection in the front window.
    “She’s a wonderful child. Happy.” Lanie almost said he was doing a good job and Emma would be fine. But how did she know that?
    He shrugged. “I guess — I mean about the happy part. She
is
a wonderful child.”
    “Didn’t you say she just turned three?” Lanie said. “Her speech is very advanced.”
    “Really? Not everyone understands her, though you seem to.”
    “Daddy!” Emma ran toward him, holding out her chocolate smeared hands. “Get it off!”
    “You’re a mess, aren’t you?” He rose from the stool, wiped her hands with a napkin, and then kissed each of her palms. “All clean. What do you say we go up to our new house? Purr Kitty’s up there waiting for you.”
    What? This was news. “You have a cat?”
    Emma nodded her head emphatically as Luke shook his.
    “S-t-u-f-f-e-d,” Luke said.
    “L-R-Q! Purr Kitty can’t go to school!” Emma held up her arms to be picked up. When Luke lifted her, she put her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear.
    “Oh?” he said. “Have you decided to be shy? You can ask her.” Emma put her thumb in her mouth and shook her head. Luke turned to Lanie. “Emma wants to know if she can give you a hug.”
    And in that moment, Lanie fell in love — completely, irrefutably, drop dead in love. She held out her arms and Emma came into them giggling. She smelled like chocolate, baby shampoo, and everything Lanie would never have.
    • • •
    In the wake of the magic that was Emma Avery, Lanie leaned on the counter and caught her breath. Sometimes, her arms literally ached for a child. And this was one of those times. But aching wouldn’t get her a child. Nothing would.
    She wondered idly what it would be like to kiss Luke — that is, what it would be like to kiss Luke if she were like other women. She had no interest in kissing Luke or anyone else because it would only remind her of how she couldn’t muster up the fundamental responses that had ruled humankind since the beginning of