Chapter 14 #2
Hitting send, she went to wash her face and brush her teeth. When she got back into the room, she avoided her phone, doing her nighttime mediation routine to try to find some semblance of normalcy. But it escaped her.
Finally she picked up her phone.
Chay was responding. The dots showing up and then disappearing for what felt like an eternity.
Chay: Glad you’re okay.
No way was that all he typed for that long.
Ava: Me too.
Chay: I should have been with you. I’m sorry for today.
Ava: You needed space and I was crowding you.
Chay: Don’t take that on. You needed me.
Ava: I still do. But when you’re ready. We don’t have to barrel into anything.
Chay: What if I want to?
Her breathing got a little heavier at the thought.
She liked him and she’d missed him. She’d even told herself that she would give him the space he needed, but the truth was she wanted to be with him tonight.
As safe as she felt in her parents’ house, she knew she wouldn’t truly feel secure until he was next to her.
That was dangerous thinking for a woman who’d learned to be independent. A woman who promised herself she’d never depend on anyone again. A woman who settled into her blankets happy to text with her boyfriend.
It took all of his willpower not to get in his truck and go get Ava and Gracie and bring them to his house. Anger, fear and guilt were a potent cocktail running through his system. He’d fucked up. He knew that.
Fear had led him to push her away and now…well nothing had happened to her, she was safe enough, but fate had given him a reminder that he was going to miss her whatever happened.
Chay: Still there?
He wanted to talk to her but doubted video chatting at this time of night in her parents’ house was a good idea. Hell, if he hadn’t chickened out, she might be sleeping in his bed right now, neither of them aware her house had been broken into.
Ava: Yeah. Wasn’t sure how to respond.
Chay: I get that. I said let’s go slow and then hit pause. But it was just pause. Not stop.
Ava: Good. Wasn’t sure.
Chay: Be sure. Can I see you in the morning?
Ava: Yes. At the hospital around ten.
Chay got to the hospital at nine because he was anxious to see Ava. He would have gone to her parents’ house but thought that might not go over well. He’d spoken to Jacob, who felt strongly that the break-in was tied to Annie Ross and her child.
“Ava was worried about Daniel Wayne, but I’m checking to make sure he’s still in jail. It makes more sense that this is connected to Annie and the baby. I’m going to keep looking into it,” Jacob had said when they talked on the phone.
Chay had reassured him that he’d keep a close watch on Ava and Gracie. As soon as he saw her truck pull into the parking lot, he was out of his. Ava stepped out of the vehicle, and Chay drew her into a tight hug.
She looked tired and small. Funny, because she always seemed so big and fierce, and he’d never expected her to be anything else.
Her arms wrapped around him, holding him tightly. The affection he had for her threatened to overwhelm him, so he looked up at the sky to distract himself. He saw signs of a snowstorm in the clouds.
“Are you working today?”
“I am. Just one session and then…”
“Stay with me? Just for a few days until Jacob and his team have a chance to figure out if this is tied to Annie Ross.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive,” he said, opening the back door and getting Gracie out of her car seat. The little one smiled when she saw him and called him “mama.”
“Nice.” Putting his arm around Ava, he drew both of them close to him. “You two had me worried.”
“We’re okay. Luckily I wasn’t home,” Ava said.
“That is a good thing. Remember the other night when you thought it was PTSD that had you feeling you were being watched…”
“I am trying not to think of the possibility that I really have someone watching me, but it’s hard to shake.”
He shouldered Gracie’s diaper bag and then watched as Ava locked her truck. Taking her hand in his, he walked with her to the hospital’s side entrance. “Another reason for you to stay with me. Kidnappers might think twice when there’s a man involved.”
“Or they could shoot you,” Ava pointed out. “I don’t want to put you in danger.”
“I’m not arguing about this. I want you to come stay with me. I’ll be fine,” he told her. He wanted to order her to come with him, but he was smart enough to know better than to say that out loud. But whatever she decided, he was going to be with her. If she wanted to stay at her place or at his.
“Don’t get cocky,” she warned him. “We’ll stay with you. I need a crib for Gracie.”
“I already got one. If I hadn’t gotten cold feet yesterday, you would have seen it.”
She looked up at him, her eyes clear with worry and fear and affection. “I can stay with my—”
“Enough. It’s time for me to man up. Stop running from every person I might feel something for. Don’t make me repeat that again.”
She hugged him and then took Gracie from his arms. “Oh, I might. Seems to me that you said you like me.”
Like her? Hell, yes. It was more than like, but he wasn’t ready to delve into that yet. “I might.”
“Ha.”
He followed her into the day-care facility where she normally left Gracie. Ava stopped and looked back at him. “Do you think she’ll be safe here? Will the staff be?”
He wasn’t entirely sure. He’d taken the day off to come and check on Ava and Gracie. “I’ll keep her while you work. Give me a chance to spend some time alone with her.”
A little bit he was baiting her to see if she’d tell him what a good dad he’d make. He could tell she knew what he was doing, because her eyes sparkled, and despite the faint circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, she looked a bit like her normal self again.
“Okay.”
“Okay…really, that’s all you have to say to me?” he teased as they went into her office.
“Yup. I mean, I don’t have to point out how good you are with Gracie—you already know that. You’re just in denial.”
Throwing his head back and laughing long and hard.
He was in denial about a lot of things surrounding his two girls.
Maybe as far as admitting to it out loud, but in his heart, there was truth.
And while he didn’t know how he’d be as a parent long-term, he already cared deeply for Gracie, and watching over her while Ava worked felt right to him.