Chapter 3
Tucker
Something was wrong.
I waited in a small meeting room at the country club. It had a view of the green, where the wedding would be held.
The guests had assembled, sitting on white chairs beneath a large pavilion to protect them from the late afternoon sun.
Fans in each corner blew a fine mist over the rows.
“You seem nervous all of a sudden,” Bill said, his hands clasped behind his back in a sharp black tux.
“Ava said she would text when they arrived, but it’s ten minutes until we walk out, and she hasn’t.”
Bill moved closer, our ghosted reflections side by side. I barely recognized us, all spit-shined and formal. We hadn’t looked like this since prom.
“Maybe she forgot. You know Vinnie is taking a million pictures. She probably doesn’t have her phone with her. Wedding gowns don’t exactly have pockets.”
I was sure he was right, but at the same time, Ava knew how I worried. And a day like today was extra risky for her. For me, too, for that matter. Stress and seizures liked to walk the same path.
We’d had a good run since Ava’s new med a few years ago. That was why she was willing to get married. She hadn’t forgotten who I was in a long time, hadn’t wanted me to move out, to avoid her having to live with a stranger.
Things were good.
I hoped they were still good.
She was never late. Never left me hanging about her whereabouts, her safety. Not in all the weddings she’d photographed or the times she went to Houston to see her father.
Fuentes entered the room, holding three beers. “Libations to get us through the ceremony. Bottoms up, pendejos.”
Drinking was about the last thing I wanted to do right now, but I took one and pretended to take a swig to humor him.
Fuentes downed half of his in one go, nodding as he looked around the room. “This place is swank. It’s an open bar, right? Damn, this is going to be a fun night.”
Bill glanced my way, and I shrugged. Maybe Fuentes wasn’t an ideal choice for a groomsman.
I guess I could have gone with Big Harry.
But Fuentes was the coworker who made Jiffy Lube bearable.
He’d been around long enough to know what I’d gone through with Ava.
Loving her even when she didn’t know me.
I checked my phone for the hundredth time. “Should I text her?”
“Sure,” Bill said. “But we’re down to the wire.”
We waited by the window. Jules, the wedding coordinator, headed toward the back door, treading carefully over the turf in her break-neck heels. Ava’s dad had hired her to attend to all the details, not wanting Ava to feel any anxiety about the day.
“Go grab her and see if she’s checked in with Ava,” I told Bill. “She knows everything.”
“I’ll say,” Fuentes said. “I didn’t even have to tell her my shoe size. She already had it down. She’s freaky as hell.” He peered into his empty bottle. “Hot, though. I’d tap that.”
Bill headed for the door right as my phone buzzed.
“Hold up,” I said.
It was a message from Ava’s dad.
Marcus: Seizure. Still down. In limo.
My stomach fell. I dropped onto a chair.
Me: How long?
It was a moment before another text came through, this time from his wife, Tina.
Tina: 3 minutes. It’s bad. She’s blue. We’re headed to the hospital.
I set the beer bottle on the side table. Fuck. That was too long. She was going to lose her memory.
I wasn’t worried about her dying. We’d been through this before. But the aftermath was a nightmare. Ava was a fighter at her core. She’d refuse help. Fake what she knew.
And she’d reject me. Three of the five times, she’d run from me. She trusted no one. No matter how I tried to convey my love for her, how I was safe, I never seemed to play it just right in those first hours after a seizure.
Jules entered the room. “It looks like the bride is delayed?”
I hadn’t said anything to them yet. Bill watched me intently, probably sensing something had gone wrong.
Fuentes was taking in her short skirt.
There was no way to sugarcoat this. “Ava’s on the way to the hospital.”
Jules’s face paled beneath her bright makeup. “Oh my God. Is she okay?”
I stood. I had to go. “She had a seizure in the limo. They’re rerouting to the hospital to have her checked.”
Jules pulled out her phone. “If she’ll be here later, we can move up the cocktail hour, swap it for the wedding. The guests can have the dinner, and we could do the ceremony at the end.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s worse than that.”
Jules looked up from her screen. “Oh, God. Will she be admitted? It’s not…fatal, is it?”
Bill whirled on her. “It’s not fatal. Jesus.”
“She doesn’t know.” I walked toward the door, tapping out a response to Tina.
Me: I’ll get Gram and head there. Which one?
Tina: Seton Central.
The usual. I shoved the phone into my pocket. “Jules, do what you want. Have the cocktails. The dinner. No sense wasting it. But there won’t be a wedding today.”
Jules straightened to full height, as if she were bracing herself. “I understand. I’ll make the announcement. Will you come back?”
Would I? “I’m not sure. Just…just have a good time. I need to get Gram.”
“I’ll help out here,” Bill said. “Keep me looped in.”
I tugged on the door. “Thanks. I’ll update you when I see her.”
“Hey.”
I stopped and turned to him.
Bill’s face was grim. “You think she’s lost it all?” He undoubtedly remembered the first time Ava lost her memory. She disappeared for months, and he’d found her first, working in a grocery store as if she’d never known any of us.
I frowned. “I don’t know. But given that it’s already been three minutes and they’re headed to Seton, probably so.”
His mouth drooped. “Sucks, man.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
My footsteps in the rented shoes squeaked on the shiny floor as I headed toward the back exit to the green. I didn’t want to say anything to anyone but Gram. Jules could handle it.
The crowd quieted as I walked over to where Gram sat in the front row with our close friends, Maya and Big Harry.
“You were supposed to come from the side,” Gram said. “Change of plans?” Then she took in my face. “Oh, no. It happened?” She knew my fear. Worry about Ava had been a constant for us since the beginning.
I nodded. “They took her to Seton. We need to go.”
Maya leaned forward, concern etched into the wrinkles of her smooth, brown face. “What can we do?”
“I guess let everyone know. Have dinner, maybe?”
She patted my hand. “Don’t worry about us. Harry and I have got this.”
I helped Gram get to her feet. I wanted to hurry, to rush to Ava, but there would be no point.
By the time we got to the hospital, the seizure would be over. Ava would be sitting in a room with her father and stepmother and sisters. She’d be lost, possibly defensive, probably trying to hide her confusion.
And all of us would have become total strangers.