by Leah Atwood
Avery found her thoughts wandering to the man sitting next to her. He was nice enough, even kind of charming sometimes. But he was still an unknown. “So whatever made you decide you wanted to work for the Albuquerque Times? We’re not exactly the biggest fish in the sea.”
Gavin shrugged. “Mitchell made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Shifting around in her seat, Avery maneuvered until she was comfortable and could watch Gavin more easily as they conversed. “Mitchell’s good at figuring out what it is people need and then using that to get his own way. What did he offer you?”
“Freedom and money.”
She chuckled. “That conjures up all kinds of images. You’ll need to be more specific.”
Gavin shrugged. “Getting back to work became imperative, but I wasn’t ready to be tied down. Mitchell gave me a chance to act similar to a freelance photographer. I get to take the pictures I want when I want and submit them to him. He decides which ones fit the feel of his paper and assigns journalists to write the pieces that will showcase the photographic work. And every now and then he gives me a call and tells me something specific he needs me to cover, and I make a point to accommodate him. I’m tethered to the paper but still get to feel as if I’m doing my own thing.”
Avery could relate to his desire for freedom. “That’s a pretty unusual arrangement.”
Gavin slipped a finger inside the collar of his shirt and tugged. “We’re kind of family. He’s doing me a favor, and I’m trying to return the favor by bringing the kind of photography to the Times that will get it some national recognition.”
She resisted the urge to dig for more answers. “Mitchell’s a good man. He runs a tight ship at the paper, but nobody minds. Everyone there knows he’d bend over backward to help them if they ever needed it. He has the loyalty of every staff member, and so people bring their A-game every day. Nobody wants to let him down.”
Avery tried not to take it personally when it looked as though Gavin wasn’t going to say anything. She was about to turn around to face forward again when he spoke. “My father was married to someone else when he got my mom pregnant. It’s a big dirty family secret. He’s still married to the same woman, and he’s never acknowledged I exist. I don’t know whether or not his wife knows.”
“Oh.” Avery’s words escaped her despite the fact that she could empathize. Eli’s father hadn’t been married when she got pregnant with Eli, but he had disappeared, leaving her son without a dad. “I’m sorry. From a mom’s perspective, I know how hard it is to watch your son grow up without a father figure.”
Gavin grimaced. “I was the result of a mid-life crisis. He has three other children, all older than me. Two boys and a girl. The boys refuse to acknowledge me. Maybe they see me as competition for their inheritance. I don’t know. When his daughter found out about me, she hired an investigator to find me. That was about ten years ago. We didn’t grow up together, and she’s fifteen years older than me, but I think of her as a sister.”
“She sounds like someone special. It would have been easy for her to look the other way and pretend she didn’t know there was an illegitimate sibling out there somewhere.”
His eyes remained on the road, but Gavin’s opinion of his sister nonetheless shone on his face. “Yeah, she’s something special.”
Avery studied him in the dim interior of the car. There were layers to Gavin she hadn’t first seen. In a matter of minutes, she’d seen joy, sadness, pain, rejection, and love pass across his face. It wasn’t always easy to find a man who could talk openly, even when it made him vulnerable.
She reached for her bottle of water and took a long drink. She saw Gavin take a deep breath.
“Mitchell’s my brother-in-law.”
Avery spit a mouthful of water out, spraying herself, the gearshift and Gavin.
To his credit, other than a quick glance in her direction, he kept his eyes on the road. She fought to get her breath back. “You have impeccable timing.”
He chuckled. “Good thing we’re stopping soon. If you’re going to make a habit of that, I think I’ll stock up on paper towels.”
As he pulled the car to a stop by the gas pump, Gavin watched Avery bolt from it and make a mad dash for the interior of the station. The man behind the counter apparently didn’t understand her. She started waving her hands through the air as though using pantomime. Eventually the man pulled out a hockey stick from under the counter and handed it to her. Yanking the stick out of his hand, she turned toward the exit then ran out the door and around the side of the building.
“What kind of problem motivates someone to attach their bathroom key to a hockey stick?” Eli’s voice was incredulous. He, too, had been watching his mother’s antics.
“Be my guest. Go ask the guy and find out.”
“No, thanks.” The teen extricated himself from the back seat. “But I will go wait my turn for the hockey stick.” He strolled off in the direction his mother had run.
Gavin topped off the tank and pulled forward into a parking spot. He locked the car and went inside to see about getting something with caffeine in it. As he was browsing the drinks in the cooler, Avery’s voice came from behind him. “Coffee and brownies make the best middle-of-the-night snacks when driving.”
“I usually get sunflower seeds. The constant action of spitting the shells out helps keep me awake.”
“Staying up to keep you company so you don’t nod off isn’t a problem. I’m not so good at driving during the night, though. I can do it in small stretches, but something about the headlights coming down the other side of the road – even on a freeway – makes me feel weird. I’m always afraid I’m going to veer into oncoming traffic, drawn to the headlights the way a moth is to a flame. But making sure the person driving stays awake? Piece of cake.”
Gavin liked the idea of visiting with Avery during the quiet dark of the night. He had the feeling this woman held a lot of secrets and had her share of pride. Sometimes the cover of night was the best way to get someone past their pride to open up about their secrets.
He grabbed a couple boxes of brownies and a big bag of sunflower seeds. As he headed to the coffee machine, he wondered when he’d stopped thinking of Avery as the woman who was supposed to have been a man and had started thinking of her as a woman interesting enough to get to know. Maybe when she threatened to use her cellphone for pictures then put his name on them for the credit. He was willing to bet she would have done it, too, and gone out of her way to make all the shots blurry besides.
Gavin carried his purchases to the front checkout. Since there was no one else in the store, he set everything down while looking at the cashier. “Just a minute.”
Avery, who stood nearly mesmerized before the slushy machine, turned to face him as he approached. “You want anything to drink?”
She smiled. “I’ll stick to the water we brought with us. It’s safer that way, in case I spit my drink out all over you again.”
“That reminds me…” He jogged away. From another aisle, he held up a roll of paper towels. “Victory shall be mine!” Then he added it to the collection of items by the checkout.
When Eli brought the hockey stick back, Gavin asked if he’d care for anything to drink. The teen grabbed a soda out of the cooler and added it to the pile.
“Is that going to be everything?” The cashier had not a lick of enthusiasm in his voice.
“Yep, that’s it.” Gavin leaned on the counter as if talking to an old friend. “So tell me, why the hockey stick?”
The man behind the counter shuddered. “Got tired of fishing the key out of the toilet.”
Chapter Seven
Almost to Tucumcari, NM
December 23, 10:00 p.m.
Avery was taking her turn behind the wheel. The road was more or less deserted, so she’d offered to drive for a spell. “Looks like it’s going to start sticking soon.”
Snow had started to fall about fifteen minutes prior, but as they continued
to drive, the flakes got bigger. She’d flipped on the windshield wipers to combat the ones landing there.
“It’s a wet snow, too.” Gavin studied the road ahead. “I don’t remember seeing snow in the forecast.”
“Me either.” Avery shifted in her seat. “But I only looked at the Albuquerque forecast. Didn’t think to look further east.”
Gavin pulled out his phone and began working his way through the menu. “Huh.”
“What?” Eli leaned as far forward as his seatbelt would allow.
“I thought I’d check the weather.” Gavin flashed the screen of his phone at the teen. “No signal, though. That’s never happened along the freeway before.”
“You think a tower could be out?” Avery wasn’t the anxious type, but she didn’t relish the idea of being stuck out in the middle of nowhere without a cell signal.
“It’s possible.” Gavin, on the other hand, seemed less concerned. “If that’s the case, though, it’ll be a while before it gets fixed. It’s almost Christmas Eve, and there’s weather moving in. I hope nobody gets stranded out here.”
Eli pulled out his phone and pushed buttons for a while. “I’ve got a signal, but it’s weak. I don’t have a weather app, either, and I don’t have enough bars on my signal meter to download any new apps right now.”
“No weather app?” Gavin asked, eyes wide.
“Hey, I’m fifteen. What do I care about the weather?”
“Can you turn the heat on?” Avery asked Gavin. “It’s getting cold in here.”
Within a couple short minutes, the temperature had plummeted. Gavin cranked the heat up to full-blast and asked Eli to hand his scarf up to him. After he snugged it around his neck, he shifted toward Avery. “Do you need anything?”
“I’m fine.” She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “I’d like to pull my phone out, but the wind is really starting to blow, and I don’t want to take my hands off the wheel.”
“Okay…” Gavin left the word hanging.
“Um. Uh. It’s right there in my pocket.” Avery twisted her hip slightly. “Do you think you can reach around the seatbelt and get it?”
Her eyes were on the road, and the interior of the car was dark. Even so, she couldn’t miss the way Gavin’s eyes widened as he first eyed her face then her front pants pocket.
“Okay. But remember, you asked.”
She almost laughed at how awkward he sounded. Gavin Eastly, world-famous photographer, shy. No one would ever believe her. As his fingers tucked into the lip of her pocket, she decided to cut him some slack and start a conversation. “You never did much with fashion photography, did you?”
“No way.” His answer was vehement and instant. “I still work with models occasionally for isolated shoots, but I never could have made it in the fashion world.”
“Why not?” She tried but failed to ignore his fingers moving around in her pocket. The phone slipped out of her pocket, and Gavin moved back to his side of the car. The sudden distance bothered Avery, and she was still puzzling out why when Gavin spoke again. “I have some great friends who are models. They’re wonderful people. But then you have the ones who are willing to do anything to get ahead – from sabotaging each other to doing some of those things you told me not to mention again in front of your son.”
A blush climbed the photographer’s neck, and a million questions fluttered around in Avery’s mind. She blamed the whole hand-in-pocket experience for her inability to put any of them into words.
Gavin’s eyes were on her phone as he continued talking. “I interned with a fashion photographer when I was younger. Being around that scene all the time became a struggle for me. That’s a big part of what pushed me into photojournalism, which I love. There are a lot of great people in the fashion industry. It just wasn’t a healthy place for me to be.”
“Oh.” What was she supposed to say to that? A change of subject was called for. “Hit five-seven-one. That’ll get you into the phone’s menu.”
“So, is that the code to unlocking all the secrets of the universe?” Gavin’s voice was warm, the discomfort of a moment ago gone. She couldn’t help but respond to the invitation she heard in the rumbling tone of his words.
Better not to let him know that, though. So she shrugged. “That phone has my life in it, so yeah, I suppose you know the code to my universe anyway.”
Gavin tapped away at her phone for a bit. “Uh, maybe we should have checked the weather.”
“How bad can it be?” Avery gritted her teeth as another gust of wind buffeted them across the road and visibility diminished.
“They’re forecasting a whiteout over most of central Texas.”
“Yeah, but we’re going across the panhandle.” Eli was the voice of optimism. “That’s not the same as central Texas. We shouldn’t run into more than a dusting of snow.”
“We might have a problem.” Avery followed her words with a heartfelt sigh.
“What now?” Gavin and Eli asked at the same time.
“The thermostat keeps creeping up.” Before she knew it, a cloud of steam erupted from under the hood. Avery swung the car over to the emergency lane on the side of the freeway and engaged her four-way blinkers. “What now?”
Gavin used her phone to call information. “I need a tow truck... Yes, I know it’ll be expensive… I think this qualifies as an emergency… On the freeway… I-40… Somewhere between Santa Rosa and Tucumcari…”
“We just passed mile marker 323.” Leave it to Eli to be the one paying attention to their location.
After repeating the information to the person on the other end of the phone, Gavin gave them a thumbs-up. “That’s fine. Yes, I understand. Of course. Thank you.”
When he disconnected the call, he leaned his head back against the seat and took a deep breath. Then he handed Avery her phone and began typing text after text on his own.
“I thought you didn’t have service?” What on earth could he have to say that required so many texts, anyway?
Gavin glanced up at her. “I don’t at the moment, but as soon as I do have service, Mitchell will have no doubt what I think about the rental car he procured for us.”
Avery winced. “It wasn’t entirely his fault.”
Gavin winked at her. “Don’t worry. Mitchell knows me well enough to know I don’t actually plan to cut off all his toes and turn them into a necklace I can give you for Christmas.”
“On the bright side, nothing else should go wrong after this.” Eli’s assertion brought little comfort if Gavin’s groan was anything to go by.
Avery tossed a smile to her son. “How many times have I told you never to say that?”
“This is different.” Sometimes that boy just didn’t know when to stop arguing. “I didn’t say it couldn’t get any worse.”
“Might as well have.” Avery shook a finger in the general direction of the backseat. “Anything else goes wrong after this, and I’m blaming you.”
She ignored her son’s eye roll and turned back to Gavin. “So how long till the tow truck gets here?”
“We’re not getting a tow truck.”
“What did you just say?”
“Guy who owns the tow truck is out of town for the holidays. But there’s a guy who owns a bait shop, and he knows a thing or two about engines, so he’s driving on out here to find us and see if he can fix the problem. He’s bringing anti-freeze, some hoses, and a couple other things.”
Skepticism prickled along Avery’s skin. “A bait shop?”
“You know.” Gavin held his hands out as though holding a reel and rod. “A place that sells worms and lures to fishermen.”
“And women.” Eli’s interjection might have been funny under other circumstances. “Don’t forget fisherwomen.”
Avery shook her head. “Our radiator blew, and a man who sells worms is coming to look at it?”
Gavin shrugged. “Maybe it’s because we turned the heat on. Or it doesn’t have enough coolant in it. Maybe it’s not
as bad as it sounds.”
Avery paused to take a deep breath before speaking again. “I heard you tell information you needed a tow truck. How did you end up with a bait shop?”
“They’re related somehow, and when one of them is out of town, they have calls forwarded to the other.”
“I need a nap.” Avery was done with this conversation. Nothing that Gavin said made the situation any better. Every time she asked him a question, his answers seemed to get more and more obscure. Of course, she couldn’t leave well enough alone, and her silence lasted all of a minute. “So, how much is this going to cost Mitchell?”
Gavin laughed. “Well, he’s charging a fee for it being after-hours, another because it’s practically a holiday, a bad-weather fee, and then parts and labor.”
“Dare I ask how much labor is going to cost?”
“I didn’t, so why should you?”
“Mitchell is not going to be happy about this.” The thought brought a smile to Avery’s face.
Gavin chuckled. “Corporate insisted they had to have this story. Any problems Mitchell has are going to get passed up the food chain, and it’ll come down to the fact that they insisted this was a condition of taking the feature national. We were provided no contact information so we could speak to someone at Corporate directly if something adverse were to occur.”
“That sounds an awful lot like lawyer speak.” Avery imagined her boss chewing out the folks at Corporate.
Gavin winked at her. “I may not be a journalist, but I can be persuasive, too, when I need to be.”
Almost an hour later, an SUV pulled over into the emergency lane behind them. “He has got to have a specialty lift.” Admiration saturated every syllable Eli uttered. “There’s no way it’s as high as that straight from the factory.”
The kid had a point. The headlights from the SUV weren’t shining through their back window. They were shining over the roof of the car. Granted, it was a short car, but still…
They all three climbed out of the hatchback to greet the man who had come to their rescue. At least, Avery hoped it was a rescue.
