Page 55 of Piece By Piece

Never would.

But she had.

He had been twenty feet away this whole time.

She didn’t storm in, although she kind of wanted to. It felt perfectly dramatic.

But that was the last thing she would remember later when she replayed this moment in her mind.

And she would replay it many times in the weeks and months that followed.

She didn’t burst through the door the way she burst through every door on a typical day.

She didn’t even arrive with a speech or a plan or the overwhelming energy that was her default setting.

She walked in quietly, which was very unusual for Liza.

The bell above the door chimed one time.

Grant was at the workbench, hand-lettering a clue card.

He looked up and smiled.

It was an actual smile.

She’d noticed them appearing more and more over the last few weeks.

They were rare enough to notice.

And they were still cautious enough that they broke her heart a little.

“Hey,” he said.

She was holding the book against her chest, her father’s book, the one with the margin notes and the blue ink.

She walked to the counter and put it between them.

Then she set the W. Elliott anthology next to it, and then the scavenger hunt clue card.

Grant looked at the three items, his hand still holding the pen, and went very still.

“You’re W. Elliott,” she said as calmly as she could.

It wasn’t even a question.

Her voice was steady.

She knew what she was saying was true.

Grant set the pen down.

He didn’t look away from her, and he didn’t deny it.

His face did something she’d never seen before.

It was like a wall coming down.

And not even partway, not a crack, but all of it.