Page 110 of His Greatest Treasure

36

AVERY

“Come in, sweetheart.”

Ava Hutton opens the door for me and ushers me inside with a brush of her hand across my back.

Dressed in a pair of loose jeans and a Hutton hockey shirt, she glows in the afternoon light. A candle is burning on the entrance table, making the house smell like cake and berries as we walk through to the same kitchen where I had a near food fight with Oliver. I toss that thought off a cliff and inwardly scold myself for thinking about him again.

Another chance to torture myself is all it is.

I’ve already spent the past two days in a downward spiral with takeout dinners and horror film bingeing. Nova’s enjoyed the lack of vegetables at dinner and a strict bedtime, but with every night I loosen the reins on my parenting, I only feel shittier. All of my hard work is so easily destroyed because I’m too busy overthinking and worrying. I fear the habits I’ve instilled in Nova are hanging on by a thread as I ignore mine.

I put on a brave face for everyone the way I always have, but for the first time in the past seven years, it’s almost too hard to keep up the act. Every stressful night that’s kept me up into the early mornings has taken its toll, and now I’m left weak and tired.Overworked and drowning without a life raft because I’ve tossed it away when it was offered in a pair of safe, reliable hands. The same ones I miss feeling on my body and in my hair.

“Your text sounded urgent,” Ava says, going right for the double-door fridge.

She grabs a jug of pink lemonade from the right side and turns to set it on the counter before meeting my eyes. I take a seat on one of the leather stools at the giant island and release a heavy breath. It does nothing to relax me.

She laughs lightly while collecting two glasses and filling them with the pink liquid. “Oh, you have a rant brewing, don’t you?”

“You could say that.”

“Well, let me have it,” she encourages, tucking a brown curl behind her ear. The round diamonds in her ears glitter in the sun rays that stream in through the tall windows.

I take the glass of lemonade she hands to me and drink half of it before she’s managed to pull the stool out from beside me. “It’s more of a word vomit and favour than a rant, if you still don’t mind listening.”

“I’ve got three children, Avery. Word vomit is a staple in this house. And I’d accept any number of favours for you.”

I crack a smile at that. “Right.”

“I also lived with your mother during her rowdiest years, so trust me when I say that nothing you tell me today will be worse than what I’ve heard from her,” she adds with a reminiscent smile.

“Do you miss her? And my dad?”

She wraps her hands around her cold glass and nods. “I’ve missed your mom from the moment she moved away. Time and age hasn’t made that any easier. It was a lot easier to visit each other when we were younger, but you get Oakley on a plane now and he’ll sit and grumble about the stiff seats for the majority of the flight. Hard to believe he used to spend a good chunk of the year in the air.”

“He was spoiled with private team jets.”

She blows out a breath. “That he was. I think he believes thekids moved all over the country on purpose just to torture him. He has to take a Xanax before every flight we take to Toronto.”

“In his defense, that airport is a nightmare.”

“A night terror, more like.”

After taking another sip of my drink, I let the cool glass rest in my palms, hoping it will help settle my nerves. “I know that my parents kept a lot of details regarding me and my circumstances quiet, but Mom must have told you something more than she did everyone else.”

Ava and my mom are best friends. Have been since they were teenagers, and while distance may have worn down that bond a bit, it’s still there. I’ve overheard several of the calls between them and know that my mom must have confided in her with topics she’d never bring up to me or Dad.

Chris was a subject I didn’t want anyone to know about, but Mom has a blabbermouth. She had to have toldsomeoneabout him, and I’d bet it was Ava.

The woman beside me copies my actions and drinks from her glass before setting it aside and folding her hands on the table. When she looks at me this time, her eyes shine with an openness that settles me slightly.

“She told me everything,” she admits. “All the way from the beginning.”

The honest admission startles me. “Everything? As in,everything?”

“As in everything.”

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