“Is that a crime now?”
“Okay, if you’re going to be like this—”
“You should just go. I’m not doing anything other than checking up on her. She’s alone here. Stuck in the hospital. She needs a friend.”
Ava hugged her brother with one arm, but he held himself stiff, probably because of her interference. “She does. You really do care about people in our community. I love that about you.”
“Yes, I do. So what’s the big deal?”
“As you said, she doesn’t have a lot of friends, and she’s come out of a scary situation…I don’t want to see either of you get hurt.”
Ryan shook his head at her. “Give it a rest.”
She never knew the right tack to take with Ryan. “Listen, I’m your big sister. I can’t say I remember the day Mom and Dad brought you home, but I’ve known you all your life, and if I can keep you safe…”
“Safety is a construct, Ava. You know that better than most.”
“I do. I just… Be careful. Both of you are—”
“Adults. Thanks for the muffins,” he said, turning away.
Ugh. She’d screwed this up big-time. “Want to play a video game this weekend?”
He stopped walking, glancing over his shoulder. “Maybe. Want to stop butting into my life?”
“Maybe. Love you.”
“Me, too.”
Feeling like she’d sort of salvaged things after she one hundred percent made them worse, she went back to her truck. It wasn’t like she was coming out of left field. Her parents worried about Ryan as well after the hiker he’d lost last year. It had taken a toll on her brother, who hadn’t had a big loss like that in his life.
Ryan was the much-loved youngest child of a close-knit family. Ava felt like she’d looked out for him, but the truth was Ryan had always been golden. He genuinely cared about everyone. He’d been friends with the kid who sat by themselves in school. Helped in the community and generally tried to save everyone.
Even when she’d come home from college scared to be alone, paranoid that someone was always following her. She wanted to do the same for him. Let him know he wasn’t alone. But she’d never been able to find the words to tell him that.
For all her training and knowledge in helping others, getting through to Ryan or her parents had always been a struggle. Now Chay was starting to fall into that area.
The more she cared for a person, the closer their relationship was, the harder she found it to be objective and to separate the help they needed from her affection for them.
She wanted to wrap Ryan in a big hug, tell him that he couldn’t save everyone, but there was a reason her brother was a firefighter…he needed to try.
Putting on her sunglasses, she started the truck and headed back to work. As she drove, she noticed a late-model sedan…the same one that had been parked in front of the Petersons’ house a few days ago. That day when she’d almost let panic get the better of her.
Ignoring the car, she pulled into the hospital parking lot. Breathing a sigh of relief as the other vehicle kept driving. Evidence like she’d told Fern to find, that no one in that car was following her.
She stopped by the day-care center for the last ten minutes of her lunch break. Gracie clapped her hands when she saw Ava and said, “Mamamamaa,” which of course made Ava’s heart melt.
“Gracie, you’re such a smart girl,” Ava said.
“Mamamamamaaa.”
She took her phone out and took a video to send to Chay.
“Gracie, say hi.”
“Huhh, mamamama,” Gracie said.
“Can you believe how smart our girl is?!”
