Page 30 of This Love
I knew he was right. “But it’s hard with…” I trailed off when Tucker returned.
“Ah, I see,” Harry said. He took the glass from Tucker. “My good boy, what does Ava need to see her through until morning?”
Tucker’s lips pressed together. “She’ll probably be hungry again. And she will need something for her headache. And she won’t know how to work anything in the house, like the microwave or maybe even locks.”
“Show us where the meds are. I can handle the food.” Harry stood up.
“What are you saying?” Tucker asked.
“I’m saying, let’s give Ava a moment. Why don’t you go fetch your Gram and stay the night with her? I’ll handle Ava tonight. We can talk about her life and look at pictures if she likes. I think I know as much as anybody about where she’s been.”
Tucker’s face had gone dark again. “But I need to show her the videos. Get her reoriented.”
“I hear you. I agree. I’m saying tomorrow is as good as any. The girl needs to feel safe, and right now, that’s the big thing. I know you’re worried about the time I took her to her mother, but I’m in the know now, and she’ll be right safe with me.”
Tucker looked at me. I didn’t have anything to say, but he must have figured out something from how I looked. “Okay. But keep me updated.” He bent down to push my book to me across a short table in front of us. “I put some notes in your book to explain some things that might be alarming. If you want to look at any videos, the laptop is here. I turned the password off, so you can simply open it and hit play.” He straightened, still frowning. “I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“That’s a good lad,” Harry said. “I think she’ll be better without so much going on around her. We’ll have a good chat.”
Tucker turned to me. “I don’t want to leave,” he said. “But I will if that’s what you want. I’ll always do what you want.”
A rush of competing emotions flooded my system, making me feel so much worse than I had when I woke up. I pressed my hand to my chest, then to my head, and closed my eyes.
“You sit here, Ava, and take long, slow breaths,” Harry said. “I’ll have Tucker show me a few things, and then we’ll have him run along.”
He got up from the sofa. I curled against the cushioned arm, breathing like Harry told me to.
I understood who Tucker was supposed to be to me. And my father, too. But my own words told me who Harry was. And he was the one who made me feel at home.
Until I could handle all the ways everyone made me feel, I needed to take this life one moment, and one person, at a time.
Chapter 11
Tucker
Gram sat across from me at the breakfast table, where we’d shared a lot of meals before I finally got to move in with Ava two years ago.
Her hands circled her coffee cup, nails painted pink for the wedding. “What will you do about the honeymoon?”
Right, Ava and I were scheduled to leave for Alaska this afternoon. She had been so excited to photograph whales and sharks and glaciers.
“She won’t go. I won’t even suggest it. She only wants Harry.”
Gram stared into her cup. “I can’t believe it happened yesterday of all days.”
“No, it makes sense that it did. She was off schedule. Out of the norm. Extra stressed.” I ran a finger around the rim of the cup.
“Have you heard from Harry this morning?”
“Yeah. He said she finally went to bed around three. That the two of them went through a few pages of the book and read my sticky notes.”
“Did she watch any of the videos?”
“No. She only trusts the book and handwriting. Marcus wants us to have her tattoo removed so she won’t keep going back to that.”
Gram set down her mug with a soft clunk. “You think the book will help?”
“I don’t know. It never seems to.”
