Page 13 of Where Are You Now
“I must have fallen a hundred times that day.”
“But you got back up.”
“Dad was the most patient man I’ve ever known.” The prick of tears came again. Ava held her breath and worked to hoist herself off the sofa to keep her emotions at bay. “I’m getting something to eat.”
Martha stood up. “I can get it for you.”
“It’s good to walk. I’m feeling stiff.”
While her mother hurried ahead of her into the kitchen, Ava, still in her memories, took slow, labored steps.
Why weren’t you there when I crossed over, Dad? Youmissed your shot. Didn’t you want to at least say hello? A lot has changed since I was seventeen. It would’ve been nice to catch up.
She wanted to think that he just couldn’t get to her, but she wished he could tell her that. The one thing she struggled with in life was his silence.
Chapter Five
For the next week, Ava did everything she was supposed to do. She took walks around the cabin, she did her breathing exercises, she ate well, and she slept a lot. Her reflection had become more normal, her bruises miraculously almost gone, and her strength was building, reminding her every day that she still had to find Lucas.
It killed her not to have any contact with the outside world.
She didn’t want to burden Allison with a call while she was away in Breckenridge. Allison would surely worry, given the severity of the accident, and Ava would rather not disturb her friend’s research. After all, Ava was fine.
And while she was nearly certain Scott was robbing her blind of her clients with all this time away from work, her goal was to get as strong as possible so she could step back into her job with a vengeance. She tried not to think about the fact that McGregor Creative’s principal, Robert Clive, wanted to name a partner by the end of the month, and she’d missed her two biggest weeks of client meetings to show him what she was made of. Robert had seen something in her andgroomed her since the beginning. Would he wait for her? He had sent a nice bouquet of flowers to the cabin, wishing her well. Was that encouragement or condolence regarding her promotion?
“I’m not one hundred percent, but I’m starting to feel human again,” she said as they got into her mother’s car for her first day of physical therapy at Vanderbilt in Nashville.
“You’re doing great. And you haven’t touched a laptop in over two weeks.” Martha made a mock-surprised face.
“I know. I’m quietly going insane.” She put on her seatbelt. “You’ve been really accommodating, but the lack of human interaction has me a little like Jack Nicholson inThe Shining.”
Martha laughed. “You’re so dramatic. Am I not enough human interaction?”
“You know what I mean.”
Her mom started the car and put it in gear, then adjusted the rearview mirror. The action took Ava back to that fateful day. She withheld a shudder, trying not to think of the accident.
“I’ll tell you what,” her mother said, “if you feel up to it after therapy, maybe we could stay in Nashville and go to one of those fancy coffee shops you like.”
“I willabsolutelyfeel up to it.”
They made the thirty-minute drive into the city. Ava checked her side-view mirror anxiously as they merged onto I-65. Vehicles whizzed past them while their car got up to speed. She gripped her hands together, their clammy, cold feel turning her stomach. Her mother changed lanes with ease, but every movement had Ava on edge. This was only her second time on a highway since the accident. On the way to JFK airport in New York, they’d taken the subway and linked up with the AirTrain at Howard Beach station. And when her mom had driven her through Nashville to Marrowbone Lakefrom BNA, Ava had been asleep. Now, fully alert, she was struggling to manage.
Fear had never been an emotion she’d understood. She’d been unafraid in business, in walking around the city, and in living alone. She’d always thought her confidence was what made her successful, but now her self-assurance was shaken. Would she be as ruthless in her career after this if she couldn’t even get herself on the highway? Would the trepidation eventually go away, or would it be a part of her always?
The minute they got off I-65 and entered the busy city streets, however, all the blood ran back into Ava’s body. It was as if she’d been lifeless for the last nineteen days, and her heart had begun to pump again with the pulse of the city. As they drove through midtown, the people, the vibrant restaurants, and the traffic filled her with a sense of being. She put down the window and let the warm air blow against her skin.
The Nashville weather was on the cusp of abandoning summer and moving into fall. Nights were cool, but the temperatures fluctuated, and after two cool days, today was summerlike. The balmy sunshine made Ava feel as if she were on vacation—something she hadn’t ever done, given her work schedule. Vacations had been a point of contention between her and her ex, David. But she’d known that people expected a certain level of work from her, and if they went somewhere, she’d have to deal with the disruption of the journey, and the work would still be there when they got to their destination.
The sun was so bright against the blue sky today that she reconsidered her position on that topic and wished she’d thought to have packed her sunglasses. Easy to say, however, when someone was doing her work for her right now. But she didn’t want to think about the fact that Scott was handling her accounts. She focused on the warm Southern breeze instead.
As they idled at a stoplight, Ava leaned toward thesunshine streaming in through her open window. The shops were full of people, and she couldn’t wait until she felt well enough to spend the day walking around a city again. She scanned their happy faces, the way they moved along. The south was different from New York. People seemed busy, but they had a less frenzied way about their collective movements. They took their time, stopped to look into shop windows, and filed down the sidewalk in a more laid-back fashion.
When the light turned green, her attention was still on the sidewalk two lanes over.
And that was when she saw him.
Ava gasped. “Wait! Stop.”
