“Yum. I’d love it if you’d share the recipe with me so I can try to make them. They were so good.”
“I’m happy to. Are you a baker?”
“Not unless slice and bake counts. But I am trying to learn one new thing each month.”
“Any baking counts. Why don’t you stop by my house one day soon and I’ll show you how to make them?”
“I’d love to,” Ava said. “This is Gracie.”
Grandmother got down on the floor next to Gracie, touching the blanket that covered her with one hand.
“Chay mentioned this blanket is similar to ones you make.”
She nodded. “I send them to friends and family so I could have made this one for her.”
That would be sweet and a universe type of connection between the two of them. If Gracie was Chay’s cousin, then that would possibly make her Grandmother’s great-grandchild. Ava wanted to ask more but felt like she’d pushed Chay far enough today with bringing up that she thought he should raise Gracie.
“I wondered that, too,” Chay said as he came back to join them, bringing a hot drink for his grandmother. “I was going to show Ava around the town.”
“I can watch this little sweetie if you two want to go,” Grandmother offered.
Well, this could be awkward. Ava couldn’t leave Gracie in the care of a stranger. The day care at the hospital was approved, but that was it. She looked at Chay, and he smiled and nodded.
“Thank you. That’s a very generous offer. I’m working with the case worker to allow Chay to have more time with Gracie, but as of right now I can’t leave her.”
Grandmother nodded. “Of course. I should have realized. How long have you been fostering her?”
Ava told her it had only been a few days and recapped the story of how the baby had been found. “The DNA test revealed she was Annie Ross’s baby. Though the birth wasn’t registered.”
Grandmother chanted something Navajo and Chay closed his eyes, so Ava did the same. It felt like a prayer, so she offered her own to God about Annie Ross. She hoped that woman was resting in peace. Hoped having Gracie in a good home and with a good family eventually would somehow be communicated to the dead woman.
Ava’s heart hurt a little bit thinking of how Annie must have felt out in the wilderness all alone, knowing she had Gracie back home. Her last moments, given that she’d died of exposure and hypothermia, must have been filled with pain and delusions.
“What brings you out here, Grandmother?”
“I started digging around and trying to figure out if your mother had any more children.”
“Did you find anyone?” Chay asked.
Ava wasn’t sure if she should stay for this conversation. “Should I go and leave you two to talk?”
“Not necessary,” Chay said.
“There’s not much to tell. I didn’t find anything. I started in Georgia, where she died. Maybe you can pick up the trail,” she said to Chay. Then turned to Ava and smiled. “He’s a very good investigator. He was decorated when he was on the Salt Lake City force.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“I want to know more about it,” she said, turning to Chay.
But he just shook his head. “Another time.”
Ava and his grandmother got along very well. Not really a surprise. He’d guessed they would. Gracie woke up and he realized they weren’t going to take a tour of the town, so he threw together a soup while the women played with the baby.
In the kitchen he watched Ava as much as he wanted to, since she was involved with her conversation with his grandmother. Ava was totally focused on the conversation she was having, which he admired. She hadn’t pulled out her phone one time or tried to steer the conversation. Instead she seemed genuinely interested in his grandmother as she talked about weaving and the motifs she liked to use.
“The crosses are the Spider Woman.”
