Page 3 of Hartley

“I’m sorry I’m late,” she hurried to say, dropping her bag in the closet. “I was running my usual errands. What room would you like her in?”

“The end of the hall to give her privacy,” Jordan stated. “Thank you for coming.”

I agreed with him there. What child wanted to sleep close to people she hardly knew? Hell, she hadn’t seen Vail in years, and he was going to be the one primarily caring for her. Though, I wanted to help any way I could and knew Jordan did as well.

Irene bustled upstairs to get the room ready. It wasn’t like there was much in it, but Jordan asked Irene to have it in the best shape possible in a very short amount of time.

Jordan’s hand went through his hair again.

“Stop,” I said. “It’s going to work out. I’m sure we’ll have bumps in the road, but we’ll do everything we can to help her. She has to be in a lot of pain after losing the most important person in her life.”

I’d lost my dad when I was only six years old. My mom died two years later. I was still a child, unable to fully grasp how their deaths would shape me as I grew. For years, I’d have moments of despair where I’d cry from missing them. But in those dark times, I had my grandfather to lean on. He was always there for Forest and me.

Which reminded me… “Is Forest fully moved out now?” He was staying in the apartment over my studio. He had little with him, most of it in storage. The apartment was fully furnished, thanks to Jordan. Forest would have a comfortable space to relax and work in.

Jordan looked to Reghan.

“He is,” Reghan said.

“He still has access to this building, right?” I wouldn’t want my brother turned away if he tried to visit.

“He does,” Jordan confirmed. “He’s your brother, therefore, I won’t keep him out.”

“You would if he was still a drunk asshole who wouldn’t help me.”

“That I would.” At least he didn’t sugarcoat it.

Glancing back down at the screen, I decided to leave the room Ava would sleep in alone for the time being. Her taste wasn’t mine. I also didn’t know a thing about what she would be into or the colors she liked. After bookmarking a few sites, I closed the computer and glanced out the tall floor-to-ceiling windows.

I remembered losing my parents and having to live with my grandfather. I was young, but moving in with him had always stuck with me. A memory equally filled with grief and hope.

My mother hadn’t been there for us like we needed her to be after my dad died. She was a shell of the woman she used to be by the end. My grandfather saw what was happening and tried to buffer us from the worst of it, but there came a point when he couldn’t. He moved us in with him when she got worse. Then one day she was gone.

I cried while my grandfather held me, Forest on his other side. We’d been through so much, but so had he. He lost his daughter and son-in-law.

So many nights I’d lain awake in bed and wondered if I did something wrong. If I was the reason she was sick. The older Ibecame; I realized it had nothing to do with me. I was a child who needed his mother, and she couldn’t be there for Forest or me.

Everyone handled grief differently. Looking back, she didn’t handle it at all. She numbed herself, and when what she took wasn’t doing the trick any longer, she found another way to ease her pain. All the while forgetting to care for the two children who needed her most.

2

VAIL

Ava had clung to my side from the moment I was in front of her. Tears poured down her cheeks as she gripped me tight. I had lowered us into a chair where I sat and simply held her while telling her I’d be here for her, and she wasn’t alone.

Even now, in the back of the Lincoln Navigator with Oleander driving us home, she was pressed to my side, holding me like at any second I was going to leave too.

My heart shattered for her. Not only did she lose her uncle, who she thought was a wonderful man until everything happened, but she lost her mom too, a loving, caring woman. From what I’d gathered, Celine had told Ava about her uncle and how he did terrible things to me and others.

Oleander kept glancing back at us with concern in his eyes. After what he’d been through losing his child, I could see the pain still lived in him. There was nothing I could do to ease it, just like I couldn’t ease Ava’s. I could offer them comfort and someone to talk to though.

God, how many of us were dealt shitty hands? Hands we didn’t deserve.

Pulling into the garage, Oleander parked the SUV near the elevator, left it running, and got out, but Ava didn’t release me.

My arm was around her back, letting her know I was still here. “Ava, we should go inside.”

She peered up at me with red eyes. “Are you sure it’s safe? Mama said Jordan wasn’t a very nice man, but he couldn’t be all bad if you were with him.”

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