Gracie cried out, and Chay waved Ava to keep her seat. “I’ll get her. You’ve been on baby duty all day.”
“That’s sort of my job right now.”
“I know, but I like doing it, as you rightly pointed out. And you could use a break.”
Ava sat back down and pulled her notebook closer to her. She hadn’t brought any patient files with her, but she thought back over everything that Fern had told her. Was there something she was missing that could help Chay and Jacob figure out who had harmed Fern?
Or was she just hoping there was a hidden clue? There were some cases like this that went unsolved for years. Something that she knew was going to make it harder for Fern to recover.
The gusting of the wind and snow picked up, and the power flickered and went out completely. Chay had been expecting it long before now. Ava seemed nonplussed by it.
“I’ll go turn the generator on. I think we should be warm enough in here.”
“Do you have a kettle for the fireplace?” she asked.
“I do—it’s in the cupboard near the back of the kitchen.”
Gracie was on the floor with a wall of pillows to keep her safely away from the fire and from wandering too far while they both moved around to get themselves ready to be in the dark.
The generator would give them roughly sixteen hours. No telling how long the storm would last, so he’d use it sparingly. The wood that Ava had brought into the woodbox and the utility room would see them through a few days. So they would be set with heating and could use the fire to cook if need be.
Talking about the case with Ava had been nice. He’d always worked alone since returning to the Navajo Nation. Mostly because he had to figure it all out in his mind before it started tomake sense to him. Right now, with the weather turning, he was thinking about Ava’s worry that a woman could be trapped in this storm like Fern was.
It would be nice if they got a break, but he suspected the men who’d kidnapped Fern were staying safely inside. They weren’t lazy, per se, but they definitely worked in a way that was easiest for them.
Coming back into the house, the thought wouldn’t leave him. These women had all been targeted because they offered the least resistance. Something he’d considered early, but now it was making more sense. The foster system had no follow-up after eighteen; unless the women were arrested they wouldn’t show up again. And if they were on their own or moving around trying to find a place to start over, no one would know they were missing.
Now, if they could just figure out why Fern had been taken. Human trafficking seemed logical, but without proof it was just another theory.
Ava had found the kettle and the cooking pot he had for the fireplace and set them on the kitchen counter. She was a good partner during the storm. In fact, she was a good partner most of the time.
He could easily see himself with her in the future. It no longer made him panic when that thought entered his head. He’d been irritated at her earlier, but now as he watched her moving through the living room getting things ready for the three of them, he wasn’t. He saw instead the family she’d alluded to.
The one that she knew he’d wanted from his earliest memory. Taking nothing away from his grandmother, this was what he wanted for himself. People that were his in a way that had nothing to do with possession and everything to do with belonging. Ava and he understood each other. Didn’t mean thatit was ever going to be easy between them. At times she was going to keep pushing when he needed to retreat.
But he wanted to come back to her. He got that now. It was easier to just say that he was afraid and use that as an excuse, but the truth was without at least trying to be a father to Gracie and a partner to Ava, he’d never know if he could beat that challenge.
He’d never know if he was just like his mother or more than she’d been. Her fears had been different than Chay’s. He understood that now. It was something that he’d never faced before this.
“Chay?”
“Yes?” he asked, coming out of the hallway where he’d been watching her.
“Are you ready to have some stew for dinner?” she asked. “It’s definitely done.”
“Sounds good.”
She got Gracie’s high chair set up and put some cut-up vegetables that the baby could eat on the tray for her. Using one of the lanterns that Ava had gotten out earlier as a light, they sat at the table eating their dinner. It was so cozy together while the storm blew outside.
The sun had set, and with no lights in the backyard, it was hard to see what was happening. “The first winter I was here, we had a snow like this.”
“Were you scared?”
“Yes. I’d only lived in California, and it didn’t snow in L.A. At first I was fascinated by it, but then when it kept falling and the wind was howling…I didn’t want my grandmother to know I was scared. I thought she’d send me away, so I was trying to be calm, but my hands were shaking.”
The memory made him ball his hands into fists.
Ava put her hand over his, and he smiled at her. “Grandmother did the same thing. She told me a story of the storm and how it was blanketing the world, covering it carefully so that when winter faded, spring would be bountiful.”
