imes.” She picked up the book, and she and her little girl turned toward the exit.

“Wait!” Rick called.

“What’s your name?”

The woman turned back, smiling. “Emily.”

Rick looked at her.

“Have we met before?”

Emily gave a small smile.

“Who knows.”

The little girl tugged on Emily’s hand and spoke up. “And my name’s Carol!”

Rick blinked, surprised.

“I named her after a wonderful woman,” Emily said.

With that, Emily and her daughter left. Later, Rick found a new question in *Ask Carol*: *How do I explain to my daughter why she doesn’t have a father?*

He wrote, “Have you tried telling her he’s an astronaut?” Suspecting it might be Emily’s question.

From that day forward, Emily and her daughter Carol visited the bookstore daily.

Rick came to look forward to seeing them each morning, especially little Carol with her cheerful energy, dashing straight to her favorite shelf of children’s books.

The quiet exchange of notes between him and Emily in *Ask Carol* felt like a private conversation only they could hear.

As they wrote back and forth, Rick learned small things about Emily, things he found himself thinking about even after closing time.

By the end of the week, Rick realized he wasn’t ready to leave the bookstore or this town. Something was keeping him here.

He decided to stay another week, and when he told Meredith, she immediately broke up with him and texted an hour later, asking for money. Rick ignored her message, a quiet sense of finality settling over him.

Rick and Emily continued to spend time together, sometimes outside the bookstore.

Rick noticed that he felt unusually at ease around Emily, as if they had known each other for years.

One evening, after he’d locked up the bookstore, Rick noticed a new question in the *Ask Carol* book.

His gaze fixed on the words: *How do you tell a man you had a one-night stand with six years ago that he has a daughter, a secret only his grandmother knew because you were afraid of ruining his life?*

Rick’s hands began to shake as he reread the question. Memories flooded back—six years ago, he’d come to town visiting his parents, met a woman one night at a bar, and they’d spent hours talking. He remembered mentioning how he wasn’t looking for a relationship because he was focused on his career.

They’d ended up together that night, but in the morning, she’d disappeared without a trace, leaving only faint memories.

Now, he recognized her.

That woman was Emily.

Anger rushed through him. Emily had stayed silent for years, keeping this from him, and even his grandmother had known and had never told him.

He left the bookstore immediately and found himself standing at Emily’s doorstep, dressed in an astronaut costume.

When Emily opened the door, she froze, her expression turning to shock as she saw him standing there.

“How could you keep this from me?

All these years?” Rick asked, his voice tight with anger. “And you even made my grandmother keep it from me?”

Emily looked down, her eyes filling with tears.

“You were so focused on your career.

I thought if I told you, it would ruin everything you worked for.”

Rick shook his head, hurt flashing across his face. “You didn’t know that, Emily. You didn’t have the right to decide for me.

My life could have been different…better with you and Carol in it.

I know it would have.”

Emily’s face softened as she looked at him, her own tears falling.

Just then, little Carol ran to the door, her eyes wide as she stared up at Rick in his astronaut costume. “Daddy?” she asked.

Rick knelt down, smiling through his tears.

“Yes.”

Carol threw herself into his arms, holding him tight. Both he and Emily cried, feeling the weight of the years melt away.