“Did you see Ava when they left?”
“I did. She was crying.”
My poor Ava. “She won’t answer her phone.”
“Her mama’s got control,” she said. “There was a whole lot of carrying on after the cops came. I saw you in that police car.”
“What happened after I left?”
“They packed up,” she said. “Doors slamming. By morning, they were all loaded up in a U-Haul.”
“She can’t just disappear,” I said. “How will I find her?”
“If Ava has faith in you, then you must be up to the task.”
Grandma Flowers asked me to stay, but I was too upset, too angry, too tired.
I drove home and collapsed on my bed. When I refused to eat or get up to go to class the next day, Gram came into my room. I didn’t tell her everything that had happened, only that Ava’s mother found out we were still talking and moved her away. I hadn’t heard from her, and I didn’t know if I ever would.
She stroked my hair like she had after the accident. I felt the losses compound on me. Mom. Dad. Stephen. Now Ava.
The world had taken more from me than I could bear.
CHAPTER 15
Ava
Mother and I spent a couple of days in a cheap hotel. She called about rentals, carefully removing the phone at night and sleeping in front of the door with it tucked beneath her pillow. She knew I would call Tucker if given a chance, and that I would run away if at all possible.
Eventually, she found a house for rent. It sat well back from a highway outside of town. The nearest neighbor was at least a mile away.
The tumble-down two-bedroom had a sagging porch and a leaky roof. But whoever lived here last planted roses, so I spent the first days after our arrival trying to prune and water them back to health.
I didn’t bother to hang my paper flower wall. I wouldn’t be there long enough.
All I had to do was wait three weeks until I was legally eighteen. Then I’d walk out of this house, and she could not force me back.
I’d find Tucker. He’d be in high school only a couple more weeks. I could go there and wait. He also had a job at aShelfmart. I wasn’t completely sure which one, as I’d never been to it, but I could call any of them and figure it out. When I had the phone and it was so easy to get in touch with him, I hadn’t thought to get addresses or numbers to find him some other way. I didn’t even know Gram’s first name.
But I could do it. Maybe even go to the hospital and talk to that social worker. I wrote her number in lots of random places before Mother found the business card and took it.
And when I found a way back to Tucker, our lives together would begin.
Until then, the rosebushes kept me sane.
Mother stepped out onto the porch. “Don’t spend too much time out here. You’ll burn.”
“Don’t talk to me,” I said. “You’re only going to be my mother for three more weeks.” I’d been civil with her in the months since the hospital because I had a secret to hide. But now I no longer cared.
She crossed her arms over her chest in a faded orange dress, her hair swinging. She hadn’t gotten it cut since the hospital. Probably, she was too afraid to be stuck in a hairdresser’s chair when I might run away.
“Who is going to watch over you?” she asked, her voice shrill. “You don’t know anything about the world.”
“And whose fault is that?” I shot back. “You refuse to let me have a life!”
She sat down on the steps, gathering her skirt around her legs. The wind picked up, making her hair fly. I had mine sensibly tied back in a ponytail.
“Ava, I know you resent me. These years have been hard on both of us. But you have a very serious condition. It takes treatments that—” She cut off, and I glanced up,curious. Mother stared at the sky, her fingers trembling as they pressed against her mouth.
