Page 31 of Harvest Moon (Riverbend 3)

“I’m sure she’d love that.” How would Judy’s dementia factor into those plans? That was something Paul could figure out later.

The man blinked back tears, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I can’t get past the feeling that I’m dumping my grandchild on you guys.”

“Hey,” Gavin said. “We love Emma. We’ll handle things on this end. You just worry about Judy. We’ll stay in touch. Let you know how she’s doing. You can FaceTime with her any time you want.”

“Really, Paul,” Laurel said. “We understand.”

The man wiped his eyes and set his glasses back on his nose. “What a terrible day. A man shouldn’t have to bury his son.” His gaze flickered to Gavin. “I’m sorry...”

The statement punched Gavin in the heart. “Truer words were never spoken.”

Laurel cleared her throat. “Would you like me to book your flight?”

“Would you mind? Judy usually does that but...”

“I don’t mind at all. Happy to help.”

“I’d like to get home tomorrow if it can be arranged.” Paul wrote down all the details for the booking and handed the slip ofpaper and a credit card to Laurel. “Thank you. Thank you both. I don’t know what we’d do if you weren’t here.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that,” Gavin said. “Why don’t you get some rest. It’s been a long day.”

***

Laurel watched Paul head toward the spare room, all kinds of emotions swirling inside. Compassion for the couple, fear for Emma’s future... Her gaze darted toward Gavin, then steered away once she found him staring right back. And what of the immediate future now that the Claytons—their buffer—would soon be gone?

Gavin was probably just waiting for her to drop a hint that she could handle things. Then he’d be out of here. Sure, he’d been adamant about staying through the funeral, but that was only a few days. Anyone could commit to that much.

But from here on things were pretty uncertain. Patty was an unknown. They had no way of ascertaining if the woman would take on Emma. Raising a child was a huge responsibility, and if she couldn’t...

“What a terrible day.” Gavin’s low voice scraped across her heart, reminding her of the grief he’d unleashed on her earlier. She could still feel him quaking against her, his pain a tangible, awful thing connecting them. She could still feel the silky softness of his hair on her fingers.

She cleared her throat. “It’s almost over now.” Even though it was barely nine, she was so exhausted she could go to sleep right now. But they had things to talk about.

“You could probably head back to Asheville tonight if you wanted.”

She bristled as her gaze collided with his. “I’m not going anywhere.” She worked hard to keep her voice down.

“There’s no reason for both of us to be here. I can take care of Emma until we reach Patty.”

“We don’t have any idea how long that might take.”

“From what I’ve read,” he said, “it’s about a nine-day sail. She left last Saturday, so we’ll reach her on Monday.”

“That’s if everything goes as planned. And what if she can’t take Emma at all? What’ll happen then?”

“There’s no need to go there just yet.”

She shook her head. “We have to think things through and make a contingency plan, for Emma’s sake.”

“We should take things a day at a time and hope for the best. I live here and work here. It makes more sense for me to stay until things are settled. You’ve already taken four days off work.”

“What’s one more?”

“If we can’t reach Patty till Monday, that would be two days. And that’sifwe reach her then. There’s no reason for you to jeopardize your job.”

She grinded her teeth. If only he’d been so supportive when they were married. It was alwayshiswork.Hiscareer. Just because his job had paid the bulk of their bills didn’t make her work any less important. “Just go home, Gavin. You know you want to.”

A muscle twitched in his jaw. “You have no idea what I want. You don’t know me anymore, Laurel.”

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