Chapter 33
ANDERSON
It’s our first day home as husband and wife.
I thought I’d feel different, the marriage making things official, but I don’t.
But things still don’t feel the same, not like they did before we left for Vegas.
The night before our wedding, alone in our hotel room after the concert, changed everything.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the way Ava opened up to me, in more ways than one.
And the way she looked when she walked down that short aisle in the Little White Chapel. The way her auburn hair hung in loose waves over her shoulder, decorated with a veil, her long legs on full display in her little white dress, her eyes on me the entire time.
I never pictured what my wedding would look like, and even if I did, I don’t know if I would’ve pictured a Vegas wedding with more strangers than friends—with generic vows and an officiant I hadn’t met before that day—but it was somehow perfect.
“Sonny.” Jack claps me on the shoulder. “Your uncle is looking for you,” he says over the noise of the hose as he walks past. I’m out in the garage, cleaning the fire truck with the rest of the crew who are on safety and decontamination duties for today.
“What’s he want?” I ask, handing the hose off for someone else to finish up.
Jack shrugs, walking off, and I know I won’t get more of an answer out of him.
Heading toward the chief’s office, I start racking my brain for what he could need. My immediate response is worry, my feet picking up the pace as I make my way up through the garage.
I haven’t talked to my uncle since that day in his office before we went to Vegas.
He sent me congratulations when I texted him a picture of me and Ava in front of the Little White Chapel that Emerson took—the same picture I sent in a group chat with my brothers and my mom.
They sent their congratulations as well, and I wasn’t even disappointed when that’s all I got.
Not even a phone call.
Part of me feels guilty. Like it’s justified, since I went off and got married without them.
Maybe that’s why they didn’t even so much as tell me congrats over the phone.
The other part reminds me that it’s not my responsibility to make them care, no matter how much it feels like it is.
“Chief,” I say, knocking twice on the open door to my uncle’s office. “Jack said you were looking for me?”
Uncle Artie stands up from his desk, setting his glasses down on the paperwork stacked in front of his desktop computer.
A warm smile spreads on his face, the skin near his eyes crinkling as he closes the distance between us.
“Congrats, kid,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in for a hug.
“I wanted to give you two a little something,” he adds when we pull apart.
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulls out an envelope, addressed to “Anderson and Ava Montgomery”.
And damn does that do something to my chest, my uncle wanting to give me a wedding present.
But also, seeing Ava’s name written, followed by my last name.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I offer, as he holds the envelope out to me.
My uncle shrugs. “It’s nothing crazy, just something for you two to put toward a honeymoon or something for the house for you two. Her younger sister, too.”
Georgie.
I haven’t seen her since before we left—since we got in late last night, and I had to be here this morning for my first shift back. Sadie was going to drop her off sometime this morning since Georgie’s Spring Break started today.
I left her a note that I would take her back to the record store tomorrow when I get home.
I miss the kid.
“I really appreciate it,” I tell him, slipping the envelope into my back pocket.
“There’s something else,” my uncle starts, just before I turn to head back out to the truck. He walks past me, grabs the door, and shuts it before gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk.
As I sit, he leans back against the desk, crossing his arms. It’s a warm day, even for March, both of us in a short-sleeved Northshore Fire Department t-shirt tucked into our cargos.
Uneasiness coats my skin again, anxiety radiating deep in my chest as I wait for him to say more. I know it can’t be anything too urgent—he wouldn’t be this slow to fill me in if it were something that required immediate attention.
“It’s about Auggie.”
I lean my head back, resisting the urge to groan. Frustration takes over any worry that was settling over me, my patience with my youngest brother becoming nonexistent. “What did he do now?”
“Nothing,” Uncle Artie answers, before adding, “yet.”
I raise a brow in response, waiting for him to explain.
“Your mom said she might be switching doctors again.”
“What?” I stand from my chair, immediately on edge, remembering that bad feeling I had when Auggie called me for Mom’s insurance information just a few weeks ago for switching doctors. “Why? She just did.”
My uncle shakes his head, rubbing a palm over his mouth before settling his hands on his hips. “I don’t know. When I asked her about it, she didn’t think it was an issue. It sounds like it was Auggie’s idea. Something about this doctor being a little closer to your mom’s work.”
I’m happy to hear Auggie is helping my mom out, and he hasn’t been calling me asking to do things for him lately, so it sounds like he’s starting to figure out his shit and grow up.
But there’s still that weird feeling in my gut about him switching my mom’s doctor. It’s a feeling I can’t shake, even when a call interrupts our conversation, and I have to gear up.
I don’t have a chance to ask my uncle more about it for the rest of my shift, and I decide to push it to the back of my mind for now—if they need me, they’ll call me.
And since I haven’t heard from them, I’ll just have to assume everything is fine.
When I get home the next morning, I take a nap before taking Georgie to the record store like I promised. She’s my priority right now—her and Ava.
“How was your weekend with Sadie and Evee?” I ask Georgie as we get into my car. The sun is shining, and the weather is warm for late March in Wisconsin.
“More fun than I thought it would be,” Georgie answers, buckling her seat belt.
Her dirty blonde hair is down and tucked behind her ears, her purple long-sleeved shirt making her hazel eyes shine as she tells me everything they did from Thursday morning to Monday morning, relaying each and every detail as I drive.
I nod along, asking questions, smiling bigger the more she talks. She goes off on small tangents with each story, giving me a play-by-play for each of the days, and she reminds me so much of Ava in those unguarded moments she gives me every so often.
Ava is slammed with work. She lost two baristas over the weekend we were gone, and she needs to catch up on administrative work that piled up while we were away.
I don’t mind making sure Georgie is taken care of—it’s honestly the least I can do, especially with the adoption moving forward now that CPS has our marriage certificate.
With Georgie home for Spring Break and Ava busy with work, it’s my job not only to get Georgie to her soccer practices and piano lessons this week, but also to keep her alive and entertained.
When I’m at work, Emerson or Rumi will be hanging out with her, and Sadie is available to pick up any slack between the three of us.
I could tell on the plane ride home that Ava was buzzing with that numbing energy—the kind she gets all wrapped up in when she gets stuck in her head.
We ended up sitting next to each other on the way home, and I’m thankful she pretended not to notice I was blushing like a schoolgirl when she didn’t come up with some excuse to switch seats with Emerson, Rumi, or Jack.
She looked exhausted, so I was hoping she’d sleep. Instead, I noticed her counting under her breath, opening and closing her fists, checking her seatbelt lock, tapping her thumb against the pad of each of her fingers.
I didn’t want to interrupt, so I waited until she was finished and took that full breath she does anytime she gets to seventeen, and I offered to help her plan how we could tackle the week.
That’s when I realized that CPS believing Ava wasn’t a stable enough guardian, or didn’t have enough of a support system, proved they didn’t know Ava.
She would do anything for Georgie, and she has four people who will help her do just that.
We pull into the parking lot next to the record store just as Georgie finishes up talking me through the last day in enough detail to make me feel like I was there.
“And then Rumi gave me thirty dollars instead of twenty like she promised, so I can probably buy two vinyls today!” She unbuckles her seatbelt the moment I put my car into park just outside the record store, not even waiting for me as she slams the door behind her and heads inside.
As I follow her into the shop, I can’t help but think about what she said about her dad asking her questions, which made her feel like he cared about her.
Something so simple yet so meaningful.
Something I do without really thinking about it.
Georgie and I make our way through the aisles of records, just like we did the first time we were here—neither of us in any rush, enjoying the comfortable silence between us as we listen to the music playing through the store, thumbing through bins next to each other.
Once in a while, I show her something I think she’d like, getting a grin each time I do, reminding me I will do anything to keep that smile on her face.
Because she deserves to feel cared for and like she has someone to lean on.
I know she has Ava, and I know Ava is enough.
But I’m here for both of them—and I’m not going anywhere.
Now knowing about Ava’s OCD, I’ve been trying to learn all I can about it.
I know there are different types, and Ava shared that her compulsions mostly surround checking and doubt, and that she relies heavily on counting.
She has a need for things to be “just right”, and I can’t imagine how exhausting that must be for her.
I want to be able to help in whatever way I can, and understanding is the only way I really can right now. Not until she and I have time to talk about ways I can best support her.
I’m hoping she lets me go with her to one of her therapy sessions. I read that it’s something partners can do to support their loved ones with OCD.
And as far as I’m concerned, this partnership of ours is real.
This marriage is real.
This family—me, her, and Georgie—is real.
And I plan on doing everything in my power to prove it to Ava.