I raced for it and tugged on the door.
The sounds and smells immediately soothed me. I knew this place. Maybe not the sight of it. But something about it felt completely right.
A few people sat at tables in a big room on the right. More lined up on stools along a counter on the back wall. A woman carrying a tray paused beside me. “Ava? That you? Oh my gawd! Harry’s gonna be so excited to see you!”
Would he?
She turned toward the bar. “Devon! Look! It’s little Ava! Go get Harry!”
A dark-skinned man behind the counter waved his arm and headed to the back corner of the room.
“How are you? How’s the pictures? Harry is so proud! He framed that shot of him you took.” The woman led me to the big counter and set her tray in front of an empty stool. “Take a load off. Can I get you something? You like Sprite, right?”
This woman knew what I liked to drink. And that Harry had a photo I had taken.
“Yes, thank you.”
A giant man with a huge, bushy beard came out of a far door, followed by Devon.
“Ava! My love! You’re here!”
He enveloped me in a hearty hug, and I tried not to go stiff. But as he held me, I realized I knew this position, this man, and my head dropped to his shoulder. Tears popped out of my eyes.
When he pulled back, his expression immediately changed. “Li’l Ava, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head. I didn’t know what to tell him, how to explain.
“I need to get here,” I said to him, pulling the address card out of my pocket. “I don’t have a way.”
He and the woman glanced at each other.
“What happened to Tucker?” he asked.
“I had to leave. I had to get away.”
His words came out like a growl. “If that boy hurt a hair on your head…”
I held out the card. “Can you help me get here, please?”
The woman turned the card around. “I can run her outthere if you like. Or we could call for a car. That’s a ways. An hour at least to get there.”
Harry’s eyes narrowed. “I will take her myself. Come on. You can tell Big Harry all about it on the way.”
The woman passed me a cold green can and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “You take care, Ava. It’ll be all right. Men are pigs.”
I nodded. So it was true. Men couldn’t be trusted.
But Big Harry was a man. He must be different.
We stopped by his office for his keys, and he led me out a back door into an alley. I followed him to a black truck and climbed in.
When we had been on the road a while, he finally asked, “You want to talk about it?”
I shook my head. Big Harry was helping me get to my last known address. I felt sure that when I got there, things would make sense. Maybe my journal would be there. I could check the dresser.
I wished I had brought the notebook.
“So, what’s in Wimberley?” he asked. “Where am I taking you?”
